Off the prompt "cuddles."

So post-Premieres the entire con is trying to use the internets, and the internets (being crappy hotel wifi) are resisting use. Leading to a couple of people in my room positing Vividon/Internets non-con.

Meanwhile, we were discussing the vastly over-exaggerated, even mythologized stories of random hook-ups at Vividcon. Said I, "How many witnesses were you that time you were making out with someone in the restroom?" niqaeli does not recall, as she was very drunk that year. It is worth noting that when she started licking my ear in Club Vivid I dragged her up to the room, which may have led people to erroneous conclusions. In conclusion, we may have contributed to the mythology. YET SADLY WE HAVE NOT ACTUALLY HAD ANY VIVIDCON HOOK-UPS. Woe.

So I've been reading some old skool Holmes stuff because really the new movie is fluffy and malleable enough that you can stuff it somewhere in between most of the other canon (though by my count Watson ought to have been married off already before Holmes acquired that cabinet portrait of Irene) and the thing that keeps cracking me up is they cite the stories. I keep reading stuff that's footnoted with references to what story random item X happened in, be it deeply relevant to the fanfiction plot or random aside commentary. It's like, really? Really? Do you not trust you audience to have read the "sacred texts," or do you just want to impress them with how much you have?

In other news: hilarious tongue-in-cheek proof that Watson was a Woman, ca. 1941. My biggest disconnect on it was "dude, your main argument is that they're married, Watson doesn't actually have to be a woman for that." It's like a heteronormative slash thesis with bonus absurd numerology. I am quite fond of the bit about the wedding, though. OH HOLMES. You know, my drag king kink is such that I am REALLY QUITE OKAY with cross-dressing female!Watson in some small portion of stories that do not remotely manage to counter the tide of proper slash.

( movie plot thoughts, spoilery? )

Vid: The Long Spear
Vidders: MANY--Please credit to "jmtorres, niqaeli, et al", not JUST to jmtorres. This was NOT a solo vid
Music: The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel, with additional material
Fandom: Star Trek and... Star Trek. Yes.
LINK (right-click or ctrl-click to download and save): http://houseoftorres.dreamhosters.com/vids/jmtniqetal-startreks-longspear.mp4 (60MB) (link updated 16 May 2020)

I promised since, oh, about the second time I saw the movie that this vid would say everything I wanted said and that if it didn't I would cry and hang up my hat as a vidder because clearly I would be no good at communicating in the medium.

So I will limit my remarks here and let the vid do most of the talking. I really only want to say three things:

1. An expansion of the credits:
jmtorres and niqaeli were the primary vidders in the sense of putting material on the timeline.

traykor, echan, and grey_bard did lots and lots additional clipping above and beyond what jmtorres and niqaeli managed.

grey_bard also recorded the vocal track for the last verse specifically for this project. The other women whose singing I sampled for this vid are Joni Mitchell and Lorenna McKennit.

killabeez and slasher69 are two vidders to whose work we paid homage. Those vids were: Killa's Dante's Prayer, because Killa is a seminal Trek vidder of the modern era (Dante's Prayer has been cited as "Hey, you guys! We can use those computers things for vidding!"), and Kandy Fong's Both Sides Now, which is, so far as I know, the earliest vid of which we have visual record (see this OTW journal article for more on the history of vidding).

The following fangirls took pictures of themselves in Vulcan salute for me to use at the end of the vid: ysobel, lierdumoa, settiai, lferion, azurelunatic, revolutionaryjo, gchick, zarhooie, missingwatch.

elfling made the awesome costumes we wore to Club Vivid.

I would also like to give a special nod to nshoe, who, while not one of our women's voices in the traditional sense, did help out with Memory Alpha abuse for clipping and making one of my hard drives live again. His wife, niqaeli, also notes that he was very patient with the crazy women in the house.

2. I did, briefly, want to explain the title, because I used a metaphor that I thought was not uncommon, but google entirely disagrees. So you may never have heard it before unless you read all the same stuff I do. papersky writes about her spearpoint theory; the example she was using it on when I appropriated it into my personal vocabulary was the Vorkosigan novels, how the later novels like Brothers in Arms and Memory are that sharp point on the long spear, they have an emotional impact because of the history of the other novels they carry. I consider the Star Trek Reboot movie to be the sharp point. Since I'm trying not to overexplain the vid, I'll leave the rest of the metaphor unspoken.

3. My hat is made of tin.

I will now take questions from the audience.

(Holy cow, it's harder to hear people cry than to hear them laugh.)

I am a fucking rock star. niqaeli too. We are a fucking rock star.

(Is it normal to cry at your own vid? For like, three hours?)

So I am working on this vid, this crazy vid that runs all over Star Trek from TOS to Reboot and back again plus fandom on top of it. I am looking for two things right now that I would appreciate your help with, internets:

1. I am looking for media which is not Star Trek wherein characters or famous people do the Vulcan salute. I have started with this list from wiki but if you know of more, especially if you know of instance of women saluting ala Vulcan, please tell me.

2. I would love to use also in this vid images (still or video) of YOU doing the Vulcan salute. If you have ever dorked it up on camera in the past or would like to do so now, SEND IMAGES OF YOUR VULCAN SALUTATIONS TO: juliette dot torres at gmail dot com.

Feel free to dress as far up or down as you like. Seriously, this can be, like, off your webcam, or if you're into photography and wanna do something really snazzy, that's cool too. If you have a disability that prevents you from saluting (ysobel, I am looking at you, I totally want you in this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE), I invite you to take one of the images from wiki or Memory Alpha or to make your own, print it out, and mount a paper hand on a popcicle stick to hold while you are photographed. Personally, I think foam fingers might be even more awesome, but I don't think we have time to mock them up.

Because you see, this is for a vid due in two days. Therefore I need your images by Thursday, June 25th, 2009.

Again: Send me your images or videos of you doing the Vulcan salute! Especially if you are a fangirl! (Fanboys: I love you too. But I want my women less invisible!)

--Email to: juliette dot torres a gmail dot com
--Use the subject line: Vulcan salute
--You can send an attachment up to 10MB or send me a link. If you are using a file-sharing service I prefer to download from sendspace or megaupload.
--Include in the text of the email the name under which you would like to be credited in the vid. (I will not be linking any specific names to any specific images, but I would like to thank contributors)
--Deadline: Thursday, June 25th, 2009!

Feel free to spread this far and wide. The more the merrier!

ETA: if you are visiting my dreamwidth from livejournal and would like to comment, you'll need to go to the open id login page as there is a bug that doesn't let you login in with open id on comment pages. However, I do prefer to receive your (many and adorable) images via email, which is: juliette dot torres at gmail dot com.

ETA2: By "Thursday" I mean if it's still Thursday somewhere on the world, you can bet I'm still not done yet and you can send me salutes. Probably also on Friday, but only while it's still Friday Eastern time. Live long and prosper!

niqaeli informs me that me and her and uh, fandom are engaging in graduate-level criticism of our media. I had not thought I was in such a rarified atmosphere but considering my classmates in a 200-level undergraduate class can't differentiate between a racist film and a film about racism, I FUCKING GUESS WE ARE THAT FUCKING SMART.

Today I linked them to something that uses the fannish jargon OT3, OT4, slash, K/S, etc. I suspect they will figure out how much of a dorkface I am any day now.

At least I know I'll be participating sufficiently on the discussion boards in these courses. I'll be participating all night long.