Sidetracks - October 5, 2017

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. For more links and commentary you can follow us on Twitter, Tumblr. You can also support us on Patreon.

Clare

1. At Vintage Geek Culture, the curator explains how fandoms die using the example of Babylon 5, touching on issues from how there’s no hope of a revival to streaming availability. I also highly recommend his Dead Fandom posts.

2. At BuzzFeed, Ema O’Connor explores the world of hardcore Jack Sparrow fans, especially in the aftermath of Depp’s popularity with filmgoers.

3. This amazing video touches on the nostalgia and history of the VHS tape, to be sure, but it also highlights the way in which certain genres can work better on VHS tape than in any fancy Blu-Ray release.

Jodie

4. My Twitter timeline reminded me that it's not just male sports stars taking a knee during the USA's national anthem with this picture of Rianna Brown, one of the Yellow Jackets cheerleaders, taking a knee.

5. Gavia Baker Whitelaw reviews the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery for The Daily Dot.

6. At Syfy Wire, Swapna Krishna wrote about what it felt like as a WOC to watch the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery. I completely agree that the ending of Ep. 2 means fans have lost the chance to see a remarkable relationship unfold.

7. Michelle Yeoh meets fans who are dressed as Captain Georgiou (and there's an Uhura cosplayer too).

8. Liz Bourke's Why Can't More Books Pander to Me? is a very 'YES, EXACTLY!' kind of article, particularly:

'I don’t notice the amount of effort overcoming this alienation requires until I don’t have to make that effort—like not really knowing how much pain you were in until it stops.'

Of course, someone in the comments brings up the 'is there a big enough market' query, which makes me weep because there are so many people out there just dying to throw their money at a sub-genre of 'books that don't kick me in the face' it is unreal.

9. Jenny is starting Something on Sunday — a link up space where you can talk about 'something that kept you on your feet' throughout the week. There's a hashtag for Twitter and Jenny will be starting to host the event this coming Sunday.

10. An absolutely fascinating thread about a WWII codebreaker named Elizabeth Smith Friedman. Jason Fagone is writing a book about her, which this is wonderful news because I had never heard of her and this is unacceptable.

11. Cassandra Khaw used the newly expanded Twitter character limit to write a creepy update on a well known piece of flash fiction.

12. Have an adorable dragon made from vintage watch parts.

KJ

13. My long-time favorite baseball player, Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants, pitched his last game on Saturday and officially retired on Sunday. He wrote a beautiful article reflecting on his career, his final start, and his relationship with the baseball community. I was fortunate enough to be at that final game, and I felt every bit of this piece.

14. A few weeks ago, fandom was taken by storm by the self-outing of the author of classic badfic "My Immortal", and the announcement that she would be publishing a memoir about the experience, which she claims was part of a scheme to find her missing brother. Now it seems that the memoir has been cancelled, raising questions of the truth of it all. Still, too bad. Also, I still want someone to write the MsScribe book.

15. The New Inquiry, a cultural criticism magazine out of Columbia University, has a special issue about (and consisting entirely of) fanfiction. When non-fandom people write critically about fanfic, I bring out the side-eye, but sometimes they get it right, and this one looks promising. A subscription is only $2; I might check it out.

Renay

It certainly has been a week (she says every week in 2017).

16. Things More Heavily Regulated Than Buying a Gun in The United States.

17. Thoughts & Prayers: The Game.

18. John Scalzi talks about how hard creation is in this cultural environment, which hit home for me big time. I tried to stay on top of things in the first half of the year, but now I am burnt out and tired and have to accept that the way I engage creatively needs to change.

19. What Does the Gender Reveal Fad Say About Modern Pregnancy? — this article is interesting but only explores one main avenue without going into the possibilities that I have about the fact that the gender binary slowly being eroded is making cis people hella nervous. It sort of touches on it but doesn't really connect the rise of these parties to the similar rise of understanding that gender is a spectrum.

20. Thoughts on white people using dark-skinned emoji — this is a great article exploring the exact issue in the headline, and also a good example of talking to friends and acquaintances about social issues, too. I use the white emojis when referring to myself. I do use the others, too, but only ever in the context of group messages to many people. For example, in my political group when I post call lists, I will use the arm flex emoji in every single shade—because my group is made up of white folks, at least one Latinx, and black folks. I don't know if my usage is wrong in that case, but like a lot of things unless you're doing something nuanced with emoji, I tend to side with the author of the article. There are appropriate times to use certain symbols, but they're few and far between for white folks.

21. I would like one of these trees for my yard. They look so neat.

22. The Origins of Halloween — I want whole books on this practice. It's no secret I love Halloween, but I love it WAY more as an adult than I did as a kid, where I was often too shy and miserable talking to strangers to enjoy it.

23. The Book Smugglers talk to Ann Leckie!

24. A hyperloop route between St. Louis and Kansas City is under serious consideration caught my eye. I don't know how to feel about hyperloops, but I'm tempted by anything in my general area being developed, because I know nothing like this is coming to Arkansas, you know, probably ever.

25. This article about how the Tortall books deserve an adaptation is relevant to my interests, and also Susan's.

26. There's going to be an adaptation of Locke & Key, which is a horror comic I genuinely loved: the art and the conceits in the story were great, so I'm excited to watch the cast develop.

27. DEAR HOLLYWOOD: YES PLEASE, RIGHT NOW, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

28. This game where you play as an asshole goose looks GREAT.

Susan

29. Squeenix has re-released Final Fantasy IX on the Playstation 4, and you bet half of the Lady Business started yelling when we found out.

30. The Bodleian is doing an exhibit on Middle Earth next year! It's going to have maps and models and manuscripts, and it sounds amazing.

31. This week I learned that apparently people in Alaska used to try to domesticate moose. Despite... Well, moose. America why.

32. All I know about The Hunt is that Jordan Peele is developing it and that it's about Nazi Hunters in the 70s, and already I want to give this my money.

33. A while ago I talked about a really cool project that was translating Greek mythology into British Sign Language, and I discovered this week that the videos are online now! Harmonia is about the goddess Harmonia and her husband Cadmus, and Callisto Is about the princess turned priestess turned bear turned constellation! (Caution warnings for... Greek myth...)

34. My friend scarimonious is doing her October tradition and recommending a horror movie every day!

Comments

[spindizzy]

(I think there might be something wrong with the first three links, they're not opening right on my screen.)

YES. That Tortall link is ABSOLUTELY correct, and I would give whatever channel ran that tv series ALL OF MY MONEY.

[helloladies]

All fixed! Thanks for the catch.

[chelseagirl]

Just read my B5-obsessive partner excerpts from the Dead Fandom article; they were angstily in denial. But . . . I came to the show later and because of them, and much of this reads true to me.