sundries + top 5 fannish things, pt. 2

[rm]

Since I'm on a set tomorrow, I got my lip and eyebrows waxed. I hate it, or something, although it's better, now that I realize I look better as a man or a woman when I am well-groomed. But I used to get a lot more waxing done a lot more often, which made it easier. I would just let it go. Now I brace for the pain and it makes it worse. My face is swollen, but should be fine by the morning.

JC Penny's sucks. They have some cool looking cheap women's business clothes, but their smallest size is 4, which fits me like an 8 or a 10 at any other New York City shop. Super irritating. I am 36-years-old and I don't want to be looking for clothes next to the shitty prom dresses in Juniors. To get that taste of that out of my mouth, I popped down to their boys department, but no dress shirts or ties. The whole thing was made of fail.

I stopped in St. Patrick's today and sat for a while, for the first time in ages. That was good. It's just a thing, and one I should note in advance that I am disinclined to explain.

I did wind up buying a dress at H&M that's very much a Mad Men, secretary getting fucked over the desk dress. Which means it's clingy and demure and retro. And no jokes! NO JOKES! Unless you're really funny. Okay? Feh.

I've not committed new RPS yet, but shy_anon has. SG/JB/GDL. It's exceptionally well-done. And for the person who asked, no, I wouldn't give a crap if someone wrote RPS about me, since it wouldn't actually be about me. I might only care if it was a veiled rape threat or something, but since the people who threaten to rape me (hi, the Internet sucks) are usually never veiled about it, don't really care!

spiderine is probably best known in Torchwood fandom for A Close and Holy Darkness. I will confess that when I first read it, despite being really fucking kinky and recognizing the technical skill of the series, it did nothing for me. And then I read it again last night. Hot damn. And not just hot, but lovely, gentle, romantic -- in its way, because seriously, if you don't know it, let me say, this story is pretty hardcore in some ways (although the actual sex isn't that outre). So apparently when I read it the first time, I was just in one of those phases where any and all references to BDSM made me think about how blindingly inadequate I find most people. So, shit yeah, you should read that, assuming you haven't already.

Torchwood people, this is made of smiles: http://kittypretzels15.deviantart.com/art/Pairing-Meme-Fffff-132443573
Found via the TWU crew.

FYI, Jack, although human, is not from Earth, hence why I consider him an alien. I realize this is a legitimate subject for debate. I note it here instead of in comments, or else I'd have to say the same thing like ten times!

Top Five Alternate Universes (not from fanfic)

You know, in a way, anything can be an alternate universe. But, I'm trying to stay relatively true to the idea here.

1. The West Wing. Jed Barlett will always be my president.

2. Torchwood episode Adam! Slutty Tosh, Nerdy Owen, and god, I am at least marginally ashamed of how fucking hot I think Ianto looks strangling chicks. Nothing, NOTHING, will ever be funnier to me than how many times I heard GDL say at last year's Dragon*Con that that was his favorite episode.

3. The Dominions of Imajica. Once when I was very sad and just broken up with, I desperately wanted to fly to London, eventhough I was an adult and knew better, to find Gamut Street, as I was quite certain that standing there, and going nowhere, would make me feel better. The fares were too high. I still murmur the name Hapexamendios for the sheer mouth pleasure of it, and take solace in Pie, who never looked like what he was, and I note was mostly described as looking like a woman in the book (after the first couple of chapters) but also always referenced as a man.

4. Since there is no true, true, true version of the Arthurian legends, it's hard to call any of the various books on them alternate universes. But I love The Mists of Avalon. That book was the first time the idea of a threesome was in my head, or the idea that two guys together turned me on, or, for that matter, in reading about Avalon, that I really understood how much it was that I would have liked to have given myself up to something; I was about twelve, and I still dream of Avalon.

5. And here's where you discover my kink for extra-fictional religious. Battlestar Galactica and its crazy-ass lost tribes mythos. I loved the show the first time around when I was eight because I wanted to be Starbuck, but also because of all that crap in the Egyptian ruins and the idea that this world could have been our story. I mean, why not?

Top best (or if you prefer, worst) dressed characters.

It can be argued that I have a thing for modest dressing. That's really not true. Rather, I'm incredibly fetishistic about clothes and find the more covered silhouette as a public representation of the body to be insanely arrousing, because it is so fussy in the way that our flesh is not, and it contains so many clues and lies to so many things. I love clothes and while I love what they conceal, I also love how they conceal. All of this, of course, is blindingly obvious from the selections below. I went with best, btw, if you couldn't tell.

1. Alma Garrett on Deadwood. If I had her wardrobe, I might even be willing to dress as a woman every single day of my life.

2. Ianto Jones. Specifically Ianto Jones in the second season of Torchwood when they started getting all his suits from Zara. I fucking love Zara. Most of my good womens clothes come from Zara and while the store isn't that expensive, goddamn do they know how to fit something. The shit makes me look like a movie star, and it did wonders for teaboy too. Also, love the color combos (Ianto's wardrobe, not Zara's suits which are pretty monochrome). I have learned a lot about men's clothes from Ianto Jones, or, I should say, from my unrequited love affair with Torchwood's costume department.

3. James Purefoy as Rawdon Crawley in Vanity Fair. When I dress Regency, this is what I'm going for.

4. Severus Snape, film version. Tiny. Little. Buttons. Everywhere. Yes. Please.

5. Satine from Moulin Rouge. Fuck my imaginary love affair with the Torchwood costume department, let's talk about my imaginary love affair with Catherine Martin. Actually, let's not. But shit, I admire her. Although I should note, I love the more somber, businesslike stuff. This isn't a red-dress fantasy for me.

Man, rereading this list, now I want to write a Torchwood/Deadwood crossover time-travel fic wherein Ianto has an affair with Alma Garrett. Because that would be HOT.

The trailer for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is out. It looks great. It's also a bit pang-y to watch, both because of the Heath Ledger factor (oh, oh, will I ever see his work and not think of that stupid night in sushi-e in Sydney?) and because anyone still reeling from Torchwood Children of Earth -- well, just trust me, it'll fuck with your shit.

Since all of the above is super-shallow, I feel a little weird noting here that I feel kinda strange about the helicopter/small plan crash over the Hudson yesterday. The small plane, in from somewhere else, took off from Teteroboro, which is where I took flying lessons. When I first started flying lessons, I commented to my instructor that maybe I'd check out the helicopter school on the other side of the airport too, 'cause that seemed cool, and he was like "No. Helicopters are how people die. This shit, it's about as risky as riding a motorcycle; that shit? is just stupid." It's stayed with me. And so has the photos of yesterday's crash, which makes it fairly obvious that in the small plane at least, death was not instant. *shudder*

Comments

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

JCPenney does indeed suck. It sucks the huge, hairy, herped out donkey balls from whence it came.

Sorry. I just feel the need to comment any time the bane of my existence is mentioned. Thank fucking god I don't have to go into that place and see those people anymore.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I find your discussion on clothes really fascinating, because I don't really think of them as anything other than functional, sometimes they accentuate my T&A and sometimes they don't.

I hadn't ever considered the silhouette. I do that with hair, especially my own, as I'm currently growing it out in various styles after being shaved for a year (I'm now a year into the growing of it).

[gairid.livejournal.com]

Speaking of men's clothes, while perusing my f-list I came across this and I thought you might like a look-see.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

I understand the thing about St. Patrick's. I like to just go to St. John the Perpetually Unfinished and just... mediate I guess it is.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I hate them. My mother worked there in the 70s, and they had some kind of deal where they didn't have to pay minimum wage. Which was about 2.50 at the time. Basssstards.

[blergeatkitty.livejournal.com]

I do know what you mean about the JCP, although I have to be at least a little excited due to the fact that it's the only store I've ever found that does reasonably priced off-the-rack business-casual clothes in tall sizes. (I finally have pants for my suit jacket that don't look like Hammer pants.) All the same, I'm 5'10" and on the high end of normal weight for my height; there is no reason I should be able to wear a size Small in anything, much less have it be baggy on me.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Ehh, I got my brows waxed yesterday. HATE IT. Hate having brows meet in the middle worse, though. If I wait too long, it's twice as painful, so there's the avoidance vs. ouch thing going on. I get my pedicures at the same place, so I try to get the brows done first so I can recover afterward.

I love your taste in women's clothes. Everybody on Deadwood - even Calamity Jane, who I secretly crushed on - looked fabulous, but Alma Garrett was the best of them all.

I rode in a helicopter once, and once was very definitely enough. Especially because it was a military helicopter and it didn't have any doors on it.

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

Oh god. I worked there after college, starting as a part time job to get me through grad school. I then ended up not going back for my second semester and was stuck there for another year, with an incompetent, adulterous, pussy whipped manager and the perpetually, visibly cold assistant manager who had him so whipped, who was equally incompetent, and a bunch of complete and utter ASSHOLES. This is less a reflection on the company itself than that store and the district, but, yeah, I still get heart palpitations when I go in that mall because some of those people still work there.

[maryling.livejournal.com]

IANTO/MYFANWY OTP 4EVA.

brb, iconning.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

WORD. CUTEST THING EVAH.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Did I ever tell you that my father was a helicopter pilot? Which made it all the more surprising for my brother and I when Mom checked out first. Meanwhile, Dad keeps on keeping on in Tampa, thank goodness.

Speaking of costumes, someone on my friends list, snowgrouse, did a fantastic picspam post of her favorite costumes in old school Doctor Who.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Deadwood was such a mouthful of delicious evil, from the language to the clothes, and oh I miss it.

[laurab1.livejournal.com]

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

I watched that, thinking what is this? And then Mr Gilliam's name appeared and everything made perfect sense. Well, relatively.

[miep.livejournal.com]

Molly Parker. Now I know where to get me more Molly Parker. *laments long lost Swingtown* and with a bustle!

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

I did wind up buying a dress at H&M that's very much a Mad Men, secretary getting fucked over the desk dress.

o, please can i see pictures (of the dress, not, uh, the latter half of that sentence) - i posted about some dresses the other day, and i always love when you talk about clothes, i'd really like to see the type of dresses you buy

Jack, although human, is not from Earth, hence why I consider him an alien - i always consider him an alien, too, but i write him as not considering himself an alien no matter where he goes

now I want to write a Torchwood/Deadwood crossover time-travel fic wherein Ianto has an affair with Alma Garrett

DO IT! i'd read that

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

For waxing: I get red and swollen and pimples after waxing my eyebrows and moustache. But now I bring aloe gel with painkiller (the one for sunburns?) and ask them to put that on post-wax instead of vaseline or whatever they use. Works much better, kills the pain, prevents/shortens swelling, and a lack of zits.

Break a leg tomorrow.

N.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

Satine from Moulin Rouge.

YES. Oh yes. Her "suits" are so lovely. That is a movie I can watch over and over just for the clothes. Because everyone dresses precisely how they ought to dress at every moment. The costume design is so sumptuous and makes the film so much richer.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

And then there's putting a skinny person in their big and tall department who looks one over like one crawled from the sewer and says, "You're too fat to shop here," despite there being plenty of clothes my size and larger. What a great way to sell clothes and make me feel like a valued customer.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Given how much time has passed and the occasional mentions of evolutionary changes between us and him, alien seems fair to me.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Were you here when I wrote the long public/private bodies thing about clothing and me and suits in particular?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure... I was possibly still in lurk mode or it really was before I started reading you regularly.

Link?

[rm.livejournal.com]

I found it -- you totally commented, so yes! Heh. I was just thinking if you were interestedi n this stuff, you should see that if you hadn't. I keep meaning to write more on the subject, but haven't really had time. Maybe when the damn pinstripes get here.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I did? Wow, my brain really is mushing up.

I remember when I was in high school and did Drama, I enjoyed being the male characters (simply because there were not enough boys in the classes). I remember getting odd looks for volunteering to do the male roles, but hadn't actually thought about what it meant.
I was a pretty oblivious teen :)
I probably inadvertently outed myself that way.

Do you have any other posts about clothes and the meaning they hold for you and all that jazz? Or resource links? Something?

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

spiderine's fic pretty much single-handedly destroyed my willingness to ever emotionally invest in a WIP again. It started out so brilliantly. So freakin' hot. So right. So the perfect BDSM fic.Something that felt absolutely emotionally true to who Jack and Ianto were. Certain scenes still stick with me, and I loved where I thought it was going. And then the last two chapters (which I'd been waiting for so avidly) seemed to completely schmoop out and betray everything that had gone before.

To me, it's one of the great disappointments and missed opportunities of my fanfic reading life. :(