blamebrampton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blamebrampton) wrote2009-01-09 10:45 pm
blamebrampton) wrote2009-01-09 10:45 pm
Why Rai wins at bluffing!
To open with an aside: I bought a gel eye mask today, for those days when the heat is just too much. On the back of the packaging it has this immortal line:
BEAUTY TIP Avoid stress as much as possible.
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. That's where we have all been going wrong!
Now to the point of this entry, which is to rave some more about this entry at hd_holidays, raitala's series Thaw.
About eight weeks ago, I was sitting in an attic hotel room in Florence, gleeful at being there with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
raitala and pingrid , when Rai pulled out her most recent works.
She passed them over, and I just wanted to run downstairs and put them in my bag and say ‘Sorry? Paintings? No, you were going to show some but then you were distracted.’ when she asked for them back. Alas, I am ethical and slow, and was not smart enough to get her drunk first.
What she showed me were the first two images of these four. I sat and looked at them for as long as I could before it started to look a bit weird and stalkery. What I said at the time was something along the lines of ‘Oh god, Rai, these are brilliant! Look at their coats, and their expressions, and the underarm hair, and Draco’s little smile, and the sweat! These are just bloody brilliant!’
What I thought was ‘In this first one, Ron is so crankypants, and Harry is so curious, and Draco is counting to 10,000 in his head and planning to come first in every single exam if it kills him. And in the second one, there’s the moment when Draco’s smile moves from “I can’t believe I beat him!” to “Did his cock just twitch? It DID!” and Harry is thinking “Bugger” and “Bugger!” and last week he stayed back after their martial arts lessons and told Draco that the reason he could never beat him in that throw wasn’t because he was smaller and lighter, but because he drops his shoulder, which of course leads to an ironic edge to the first bugger. His word choice may not be ironic, BTW.’
She seemed pleased that Pin and I liked them so much, and did her standard modest hand wave thingy when we began to rave enthusiastically. She told me that they were for her recipient for hd_holidays, and I immediately developed an unreasonable hatred for said person, since they would ‘have’ these images, which wasn’t fair, because they were talking to me!
There was a reason for that.
Raitala is the TRICKIEST and KINDEST and NAUGHTIEST and CLEVEREST woman, and I really cannot say thank you enough! Though I am never, ever playing poker with her, because she managed to completely convince me they were for someone vague and annoying (oh, hang on ... no, it was acting! I am sure!) and I had not an iota of suspicion!
Though it is ENTIRELY my fault they were posted so late due to the fact that my own work was submitted appallingly late. However, what a brilliant addition to the final week!
My partner, who refers to fandom as ‘that odd thing you do, no, the other one’, describes Rai’s work as ‘kind of Aubrey Beardsley, it’s someone who is using human forms to make artistic points about the figure or the environment they’re placed in, rather than just representing a body’. Quite so. (He can be quite clever, that J.)
If you somehow managed to miss them, trot over to her lj and view the series here, and leave her some thanks for sharing her artistic and storytelling skills with us.
You know, withraitala , leochi , red_rahl , oldenuf2nb , lillithium , and the many other brilliant artists out there all providing their diverse, insightful art for free, as a fandom we are ludicrously lucky!
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAYtnumfive ! All the best for your day!
BEAUTY TIP Avoid stress as much as possible.
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. That's where we have all been going wrong!
Now to the point of this entry, which is to rave some more about this entry at hd_holidays, raitala's series Thaw.
About eight weeks ago, I was sitting in an attic hotel room in Florence, gleeful at being there with
raitala and pingrid , when Rai pulled out her most recent works.She passed them over, and I just wanted to run downstairs and put them in my bag and say ‘Sorry? Paintings? No, you were going to show some but then you were distracted.’ when she asked for them back. Alas, I am ethical and slow, and was not smart enough to get her drunk first.
What she showed me were the first two images of these four. I sat and looked at them for as long as I could before it started to look a bit weird and stalkery. What I said at the time was something along the lines of ‘Oh god, Rai, these are brilliant! Look at their coats, and their expressions, and the underarm hair, and Draco’s little smile, and the sweat! These are just bloody brilliant!’
What I thought was ‘In this first one, Ron is so crankypants, and Harry is so curious, and Draco is counting to 10,000 in his head and planning to come first in every single exam if it kills him. And in the second one, there’s the moment when Draco’s smile moves from “I can’t believe I beat him!” to “Did his cock just twitch? It DID!” and Harry is thinking “Bugger” and “Bugger!” and last week he stayed back after their martial arts lessons and told Draco that the reason he could never beat him in that throw wasn’t because he was smaller and lighter, but because he drops his shoulder, which of course leads to an ironic edge to the first bugger. His word choice may not be ironic, BTW.’
She seemed pleased that Pin and I liked them so much, and did her standard modest hand wave thingy when we began to rave enthusiastically. She told me that they were for her recipient for hd_holidays, and I immediately developed an unreasonable hatred for said person, since they would ‘have’ these images, which wasn’t fair, because they were talking to me!
There was a reason for that.
Raitala is the TRICKIEST and KINDEST and NAUGHTIEST and CLEVEREST woman, and I really cannot say thank you enough! Though I am never, ever playing poker with her, because she managed to completely convince me they were for someone vague and annoying (oh, hang on ... no, it was acting! I am sure!) and I had not an iota of suspicion!
Though it is ENTIRELY my fault they were posted so late due to the fact that my own work was submitted appallingly late. However, what a brilliant addition to the final week!
My partner, who refers to fandom as ‘that odd thing you do, no, the other one’, describes Rai’s work as ‘kind of Aubrey Beardsley, it’s someone who is using human forms to make artistic points about the figure or the environment they’re placed in, rather than just representing a body’. Quite so. (He can be quite clever, that J.)
If you somehow managed to miss them, trot over to her lj and view the series here, and leave her some thanks for sharing her artistic and storytelling skills with us.
You know, with
raitala , leochi , red_rahl , oldenuf2nb , lillithium , and the many other brilliant artists out there all providing their diverse, insightful art for free, as a fandom we are ludicrously lucky!Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY
tnumfive ! All the best for your day!
a favour?
*also extremely lazy*
*also extreeeeeeemely picky*
*but gets the feeling you'd have an idea what I'd like*
... any recs from the HP holiday stories? I haven't read any Potterfic in an absolute age but fancy some this weekend.
Re: a favour?
It starts as a simple Harry rescues Draco from disgrace story, but shifts in mood and tenor as it moves along and becomes something altogether more complex and interesting by the end. The writing is assured and witty, though the author has since said that she screwed some things up in a bid to submit in time. She is editing at the moment and hopes to have the final version up soon.
All Tomorrow's Parties (http://community.livejournal.com/hd_holidays/125329.html) was one of the most interesting stories; playing off lilithium's art to construct a tight mystery that reveals its dark obsessiveness slowly. Certainly one of the cleverest of the fest, and a nice short read.
I feel certain that I WILL like Master Work, All's Fair in Love and Wards, and Misuse of Muggle Artefacts as soon as I have an hour to myself to read them.
If you can forgive the shameless self-pimping, you might also like to try For the Public Good (http://community.livejournal.com/hd_holidays/130354.html). I hesitate to mention it, save that I make a deliberate homage to Corridors of Power that might give you a giggle. The author is well aware of the errors remaining in the fest text and will be posting a new copy here, soon. She hastens to add that her beta was operating under cruel and unusual conditions.
Re: a favour?
Re: a favour?
Re: a favour?
You may add So Hard A Master and For Whatever Ails You. Seriously, you don't want to miss those two. It's ridiculous, really to say which one to like best, but those two certainly left me deeply impressed.
Re: a favour?
Re: a favour?
This one is a very clever look at Snape and the psychology of lying and betraying over years: The Scientific Exchange of ignorance (http://community.livejournal.com/hp_darkfest/9475.html)
The Playroom (http://community.livejournal.com/hp_darkfest/2731.html) is a harder read, because it is so intensely written and such a viscerally dark story, but it is spectacularly good, and comes with some beautiful illustrations by raitala. Draco Malfoy likes to take out his frustrations on the more or less willing body of Harry Potter, but it's his Aunt Bellatrix who haunts his dreams. Except about a thousand times more interesting than my inept summary.
Finally, Blue Oblivion (http://community.livejournal.com/hp_darkfest/2849.html) is a lyrical, beautiful piece of utter sadness, next gen, AS/S of a sort, and with the fabulous Minerva making a terribly sensible guest appearance.