a sense of joy and then a panic

"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" - Smashing Pumpkins: House MD

... unfortunately, my name is not Cormac McCarthy.

I just found this rather strange AMV setting "Vermilion Pt. 1" by Slipknot to the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. I found it kind of cute because it incorporates two of my past LJ themes.



Alice is a rather interesting heroine, for Disney. Reputedly she's Walt Disney's least favorite because she's so "cold". She's also the youngest - I see her being younger than Wendy, and at any rate, she doesn't have a love interest - the only one without a boy. That in and of itself makes her interesting.

You know that your fandoms have a theme when you've favorited four videos to the two same songs: "It's Been Awhile" - Staind (A great angsty but decidedly un-emo song, by the way) and Linkin Park's "In The End".

Law & Order CI
X-Files

Law & Order CI
X-Files

After the exciting revelation that many people also think that Detectives Goren and Eames would make a great couple, I realized they have a lot in common with my other "other" pair: Mulder and Scully.  The man ("you're not a guy.  the world is full of guys.  be a man.  don't be a guy.") is incredibly intellectual but rather socially inept and has a bad reputation within the bureaucracy, probably because he's "hard to work with" or "insane".  The woman is much more in-line with the bureaucracy at the beginning, with a stoic father also involved with the bureaucracy who everyone looks up to, and is assigned as a dependable good girl to follow around the man and make sure he doesn't screw up.  At first the woman thinks the man is batshit insane with his strange theories and mannerisms, but eventually she realizes that he's brilliant and dedicated and passionate about his work, and often he's right on the mark.  At first the man thinks she's just a closed-minded goody-goody two shoes who's just a pawn for orthodoxy, but eventually he realizes that she's courageous and clever and made of pure steel.  They end up making a good team, but the world closes in on them - the bureaucracy; the man's past demons and emotional instability; the woman's insecurities and sacrifices she has to make.  And when the man looks like he's going to destroy a crime scene out of rage, the woman yells at him, and keeps yelling, but he appreciates it because everyone else just looks away, calls him crazy, and detaches from him, and though she yells and gets frustrated and impatient, she stays. 

Reminds me of the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin - where the mortal woman has to get the bewitched man out of the clutches of the Queen of Fairies simply by pulling him off his horse and holding onto him, while the fairies turn him into a snake, into fire, into ice, into a wild dog.  When she doesn't let go despite all that, he turns into a naked man and is freed from the spell. 

Ah, just watch the videos.

So then I thought, this doesn't really jibe with my other pairing, you know, the biggie, G/CC.  But I think there are two distinct kinds of couples that I "ship":

1.  Keep the Faith - the traditional couple, star-crossed and long together, the man honorable and duty-bound, the woman devoted and keeping the home fires burning while he goes out to battle.  Neither really have emotionally problems to start out with, though the stress of constant separation gets to them eventually and disillusions them, because they're the innocents who carry the burden of the world.  Examples: Goku/Chi-Chi, Aragorn/Arwen, Hector/Andromache.  And Acmon/Andromache. 

2.  Walk the Line - the jaded, angsty couple, who may or may not actually be an official couple throughout most of the series.  The man's gifted but volatile as all hell, and the woman chooses her doom by insisting on following him through his downward spiral.  Firm rather than mushy, both are active and probably work together, and end up making each other even more lonely, jaded and bitter, because they're the only ones who know truth and pain.  Examples: Mulder/Scully, Goren/Eames, Johnny Cash/June Carter.  And Rod/Nike. 

To be fair, there are some consistencies - the deepening of the bond over the course of turmoil, the woman's incredible fortitude, the man's dedication to his cause, whatever it may be.  However, Keep the Faith is like my little girl princess fantasy couple.  I'll always hold a special place in my heart for those couples.  But I think the couple I'm meant to belong in is Walk the Line.  You know?  I don't think I'm going to end up in a Keep the Faith relationship, but a Walk the Line relationship.  I don't know why I feel this or how I claim to know this, but I just do. I guess for one, in real life I'm much more attracted to Walk the Line type guys, and I'm also very committed to work, to the cause, and have at least minimal faith in The Bureaucracy, like Walk the Line type women.  In fact I consider myself a Walk the Line woman.  There's an incredible resonance when I watch Walk the Line videos, a familiarity, an understanding. 

Some songs and their AMVs for the Walk the Line couple (since I feel I've neglected them in my own thinking), besides "It's Been Awhile", which is probably the theme song for the Walk the Line couple:
* "What Sound" by Lamb
* "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" by Fuel
* "Savin' Me" by Nickelback
* "Push" by Matchbox 20
* "Run" by Snow Patrol
* "Teardrop" by Massive Attack

A note on the last video - read the explanatory paragraph on the side.  One of the (many) remaining controversies is how Scully got pregnant with baby William toward the end of the saga.  Was it artificial insemination?  Was it magic alien abduction shit again?  Or was it "the old-fashioned way"?  I think William's weird powers can be explained by Scully having been abducted in the past, because it becomes clear that Mulder is William's father, and why not have it be the old-fashioned way.  This video is pretty convincing.  It would explain the way they act around each other afterwards.  One of the strongest moments in the last season, I think, is when Mulder's being held in the secret government prison and beaten by the guards, and they want him to say that he is wrong, wrong about everything, wrong about the X-Files, wrong about aliens, wrong about the conspiracy.  So they hit him and say, "What are you thinking about?" and he says, (the second time), "My son, and his mother," and they hit him again.  It's painful.  But poignant. 

God.  As shallow as all this fandom shit may seem, it's taken a lot out of me, realizing this.  Makes me feel like I'm looking into my future.  Creepy.  But I think I know for sure now what my "type" is. 

wow... you know that your fandom is low on the Scale of Intellectualagism when most of your fandom's songs are set to bands like... hmm... Linkin Park... Korn... "click click boom"... and most of the AMVs are just really long cut scenes...

I searched my "other" favorite anime on YouTube this morning and was astonished at the phenomenally high caliber of Akira AMVs.  Akira was Absolut Vodka's Absolut Anime, and I understand it's considered by many (including myself) the best anime in the history of time, but damn, all these AMVs are amazing, and it's such a refreshing and slightly sad change from the crap I have to wade through to find one decent DBZ AMV.  Oddly enough many of the creators of these amazing Akira AMVs have names or sigs that derive from DBZ.  Ah well.  That's not too surprising, given they have the same basic themes. 

Does Akira lend itself to good AMVs because of its cinematography?  Or does Akira just have smarter, more competent fans? 

I feel like sharing some, so here y'all go, thank me later.

1.  Evangelion and Akira: "Apocalypse Now" by Muse - phenomenal, that's all I have to say.  I need to buy End of Evangelion, because I love that movie more and more everytime I think about it.  This AMV = why I watch anime.  You can't pull this shit off in 3D. 
2.  Akira: "Come Out and Play" by the Offspring - much more lighthearted than the former but still fantabulous with amazing lipsynching.  My favorite part is when Kaneda is pumping his fist at Tetsuo to the song's, "Hey man, you disrespecting me?"
3.  Akira: "Right Now" by Korn - yes, it's Korn, but it's a very well-done AMV, and captures the whole "teenaged boys shouldn't have power" thing that Akira makes plaintively clear.  Shut up, shut up, shut up I'll fuck you up! 
4.  Akira: "Exit Music (For a Film)" by Radiohead - yeah, Akira actually gets AMVs done to Radiohead.  You don't even want to know how bad the result is when you put Radiohead to DBZ.   This one is very sad and depressing and tragic. 
5.  Akira: "Boom" by P.O.D. - the great choreography continues, this time excelling in the motorcycle chase scenes and the devastating hits to the head, as well as our favorite cocky bastard, Kaneda. 
6.  Akira: "Out Comes the Evil" by Lords of Acid - the techno/rock juxtaposed with "pop goes the weasel" and the freakiness that is Akira = perfection.  I mean, come on, Akira sometimes plays like it was made on acid. 
7.  Akira: "Wonderboy" by Tenacious D - really funny AMV that casts Kaneda as Wonderboy and Tetsuo as Young Nasty Man.  The end is a little weak in comparison to the rest of the video, but the part where they say, "oh, yeah, how about the power of flight?" and you see Tetsuo flying above Neo-Tokyo is priceless.