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dreamersdare is hosting a "Stuff I Love" fest during February and I'm just scraping in with enough time to participate in the first week because it's still February 7 in some part of the world.

So without further ado, one shots.

Some of these were easy, but it did take a bit of thinking to come up with the last couple to round it out.

Tangled
This was the first Disney movie that I was aware of before it hit Australian cinemas. I'd actually seen some trailers and participated in some fan stuff, and I was hyped enough that when Edy and I were planning our first trip away together, I was like, "It's fine it we leave on January 6 as long as we're somewhere with a cinema that night because there's this movie I want to see."

We were in Cairns and our hostel was literally across the road from the cinema complex, so that worked out well. Edy will confirm that I was cross-legged and leaning forward totally invested the whole way through.

I love Rapunzel so much. There is a fine line between portraying her realistically given her circumstances and moving the story forward, and I feel like they struck the balance between her fears and her excitement really well. And her growth, you guys! GROWTH.

Mother Gothel is one of Disney's best villains imo because of how realistic she is. And who doesn't love a jerk with a heart of gold like Eugene Fitzherbert? (We'll ignore all the BS his voice actor has gone on to spout)

To this day I cannot watch the lantern scene without getting choked up. The animation is so beautiful! And then they sing I See the Light and just ugh. So good.

Ever After

Ugh, this movie. I'm pretty sure it's the reason I'm a sucker for tropes like Heir to Throne/Outspoken Commoner and the Cinderella variations where the Cinderella character knows/has met the Prince before the ball. It's just stellar in every way. The whole cast nails it. This was the first thing I ever saw Angelica Huston in and she's just incredible in that role. The script is perfect. Drew Barrymore and Dougray Scott had so much chemistry and I love the banter between them.

I still go around saying things like "Yes, mother, I'm just here for the food" but no one ever gets the reference.

My only criticism of the movie is that Drew's accent is all over the place throughout.

Fun fact: one of the earliest pieces of fanfiction I remember writing was when I was 10 or 11 and this movie had just come out on VHS and me and a friend were watching it all the time, and I wrote a "sequel". For my age, it was not a terrible concept, I think one of the stepsisters made it back to France and wanted revenge? (I guess it was Marguerite if there was revenge involved). Also I was convinced that I was going to hire a video camera and make this movie myself. My guinea pigs had a guest role somewhere. 😂

( Also did you know they made it a musical? Youtube embeds under the cut. )

The Travelling Cat Chronicles

This is a Japanese novel by Hiro Arikawa. I got it in a Secret Santa with my book group a couple of years ago and I was warned by everyone who had read it that I would cry and to have the tissues nearby. I figured out fairly early on the likely reason people were telling me I would cry and thought "pfft, I'll be fine."

Reader, when I tell, I sobbed. No, the cat doesn't die! But the ending is just written in such a beautiful way. I was thinking about it often after I read it. It's not something I would usually pick up, it's much more a slice of life kind of story, but I really recommend this one.

The Kingdom
This is a YA novel by Jess Rothenberg and it just hits so many of my favourite tropes. Picture Disneyland... but in a near-future with android Princesses. And there's a murder. And nothing is at is seems. I read this when it first came out and gave it five stars, and I read it again last year and it was still a 4.5 even though my tastes in writing have changed a fair bit over the years and I'm a bit pickier about young adult books than I used to be. I just wish there was a sequel. There was definitely room for one, but nothing ever eventuated. I'm not sure if the author was planning one and it fell through or if the ending is supposed to be left up to our imagination. I would definitely have loved more!

Much Ado About Nothing
The original romcom! This is my favourite of Shakespeare's plays. The banter is god-tier. I've seen it a few times live and my favourite version was set in the 1920s. And the David Tennant/Catherine Tate version is sublime. See it if you can! This was the production that gave me my controversial opinion that David Tennant is better at Shakespeare than Doctor Who. He's actually fine at Doctor Who but he really shines doing Shakespeare!

Come From Away
We saw this show on Broadway in 2019 knowing absolutely nothing about it other than the brief summary on broadway.com and thinking "Oh, that sounds nice." Instant. Favourite.

For those unfamiliar, this musical takes place in the week following the 9/11 attacks in a small town called Gander in Newfoundland, where 38 planes were diverted when the US airspace closed. The town has a population of around 7000 and there were that many people again on the planes. It's just a beautiful story of community and coming together in the face of tragedy. It doesn't shy away from the bad things but it's got so much warmth and heart. I cry every time I listen to it. I've seen it two more times since Broadway and would see it again many times if opportunity presented itself.

I auditioned for a local production last year but they had something like 120 people auditioning for 12 roles! So needless to say, I didn't make it. But they had their pick of the best performers around here and it was an excellent production as a result.

Cats

Don't give me that look. 😂 Cats has no plot? Duh, I'm aware, I watched the proshot every day for months when I was 10. My niece was three and so we've both got a very big place in our hearts for this show. We went and saw the 40th Anniversary Australian tour together last year and had the best time. It's just fun? It's dancing and singing cats! Lyrca! Leg warmers! Incredible dancing! Who needs a plot?

Phantom of the Opera

Ahh, my problematic fave. Look, I know. But dammit if the first notes of that overture don't get me every time. It's just so ridiculous and over the top. Also, I was introduced to the original cast recording around the same time as I was introduced to Cats, and I am an Andrew Lloyd Webber tragic forever as a result. I would love to see the new staging, and also the Masquerade version on in NYC right now, but I doubt I'm going to have the funds for either (well, definitely not getting to NYC, but even the Sydney Harbour productions are like $300 a ticket or something).

Winnie-The-Pooh

I'm counting this as standalone because even when new things come out, they are usually not continuing on from something previous.

There is just something about the childlike wonder of this material, both the books and the movies. The whimsy! The way phrases like Bear of Very Little Brain get capitalised just adds to the unique style. My partner and I will play Pooh Sticks any time we walk across an old wooden bridge in the woods. We have it on our bucket list to visit the village/woods that the 100 Acre Woods were inspired by and play Pooh Sticks on the actual bridge. One day.

The Scarlet Pimpernel (BBC)

I was trying to think of something else to finish this list off and that got me thinking what are things I still quote from years after I last watched them? The BBC adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel with Richard E. Grant and Martin Shaw is definitely one of them. It's just adventurous and kind of swashbuckling even though there are no pirates. There's a fun love story, too. The costumes and locations and everything are gorgeous and luscious. It's just a fun time.

Current Mood: calm

The Ferris Wheel

Journaling: Life in fandom goes through ups and downs. Reminisce about the "wild ride" of your time in fandom or in other online communities.

I was writing fan fiction in creative writing classes in primary school in the 90s before we even had Internet access... then a chance moment on a forum in 2004 lead me to fanfiction.net, which in turn lead me to LiveJournal, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I did write Harry Potter fic in high school, though you won't see me touching that with a 20 foot pole anymore. And to be honest, I was only ever a casual fan and involved as the books were coming out, and once there was no more source material, I didn't really have any reason to stay in the fandom.

Actually, that was often the case for me, I'd get super into something for a short amount of time, visit the fandom briefly, and then drop it as soon as I wasn't interested anymore. Off the top of my head, I think I wrote a couple of Stargate SG-1 fics, because I binged the first four or five seasons, then I had to go home for a couple of weeks and didn't have access to my friend who was loaning me the DVD box sets, and then by the time I got back to uni, I was like, "Nah, I'm good."

My main fandoms were Doctor Who and Disney, and that's still the case insofar as I still participate in fandom. I lost touch with fic writing for a literal decade, then suddenly watched Tangled the Series in 2023 and got back into writing briefly... But again, once I had watched the series once, I had no particular desire to rewatch it and continue engaging with fannish stuff... the movie will have my heart always, but the series is... okay. It had a lot of promise, but it didn't live up to it. Anyway, that's a rant for another day.

I became more engaged with Doctor Who again with the most recent series and wanted to participate in fandom a bit more, but Tumblr seemed the most likely place for it, and Tumblr can be a weird space... I had to step back after reactions to the finale, when there was so much stuff like "Russel T Davies needs to DIE" and yeah, it was probably just hyperbole borne from frustration (I was also left frustrated with the finale few episodes) but it also felt kind of like they meant it.

My main "fannish" (for want of a better word) pursuit these days is generally reading and blogging, but the bookish community, at least on Insta/Threads, is a bit of a hot mess.

- Both readers and authors are entitled in so many ways.

- If you're not reading the latest releases, you don't get a lot of traction (and I am never reading the newest releases, a. because I have always been behind, and b. currently romantasy is the big thing, and while I love a fantasy with a solid romantic subplot, a fantasy setting with a romance plot is not my thing).

- Pirating and generative-AI are big things now. I guess it's always been there but now you have people commenting on an author's post promoting their book asking where they can get a free PDF, and I feel like no one was so brazen about it before.

- There's been this whole thing where two serial-numbers-filed-off Dramione fics were published on the same day. Not an issue on its own, but basically the whole marketing plan has been pushing the Dramione angle. A lot of people have been talking about how weird it is that they leaned so hard into the fic angle when this has never been how it's done before (yes, we know 50 Shades was a Twilight fic, and we know that Ali Hazelwood's early books started out as Reylo fics, but that was never pushed in the marketing of the original versions). Plenty of trans people have been asking readers not to engage, as it's keeping the HP franchise relevant, and the authors are pushing some stuff about "fanfiction can be an act of resistance" but... they are both cis women, writing heteronormative relationships... not exactly a reclamation of anything much. Anyway, it's been a whole thing.

So mostly, I just read my books and post on my review blog, and enjoy the likes that I get on any photos I post. Threads' algorithm is so weird, I have basically stopped posting there because I always get people giving weird responses.

Anyway. This post probably ended up a big more negative than I intended, but it's an honest take on the scene (from my POV) at the moment, too.

Current Mood: mellow

A few people on my friends page have been doing

sunshine_revival and I decided I might give it a go, too, even if we are already halfway through the month. They're already up to Challenge 4 but I'm just going to jump in here.

Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

1. human-made art. The number of people I know who see no issue using various AI things is shrinking and I am sad and tired over it. There's a young non-binary artist on TikTok whom Edy and I are supporting with commissions when we can because they and their partner are trying to get back on their feet after some rough times, and while some of their pieces are better than others, they are all hand drawn by the artist and it's lovely seeing the progress shots, and coming up with new prompts is fun, too.

Here's their ko-fi if anyone's interested.

2. all the books. I've already finished five books for July and I have next week off work. Plus I'm already ahead on my reading goal for this year. I stopped setting reading goals because GoodReads is always like 'You're five books behind!" but now I'm using StoryGraph and you can turn that off on there and it just has a progress bar. My goal is 70 books and I've already read 47. I'm a little over 100 pages from the end of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes but I think I'm going to need to take a break for a couple of days. It's a bit of a slog and the MC is so (intentionally) unlikeable. I've got The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches from the library which sounds like a perfect palate cleanse.

3. on that note, the readathon I'm doing this month. It's called Sunrise on the Readathon and obviously inspired by The Hunger Games and Sunrise on the Reaping specifically, and I don't think I am emotionally prepared for the next two weeks. The teams are based on Zodiac signs and I am Team Leo. We've lost two tributes already and I suspect we will probably lose at least one this week! 😭I did not think I would get so emotionally invested.

4. it's cold! Which sucks because cold, but also, Canberra can be very aesthetic in the winter (also another link with less fog - that's about the extent of the snow we get each year). None of the photos are mine.

5. Disney cruise! We have put a deposit on one! It's wildly expensive. But I have come around to it, regardless. We will be on board for New Year's, so that will be fun. I watched a video tour of the ship, and it sounds like there's heaps to do during the day, movies and trivia and that sort of stuff, but also drawing classes and other Disney-specific things. And of course character meet and greets.

6. writing. Writing project is going well, I'm on track to reach my goal of 20k for the month early. Then I need to do some more plotting because while I have a two-sentence summary of what I want to happen for the rest of the book, I need to work out the specifics.

7. dreams. like the ones we have at night. I miss having fun ones. I used to remember a lot more of my dreams but now I only seem to remember the bad ones. I had one the other night that was clearly the Hunger Games stuff getting into my subconscious, and I was so upset by it then I had to turn and cuddle into my partner and have a cry.

... okay, I know the thing says ten things, but it is after 9pm and I've been writing this instead of getting my fiction writing goal down for the night, so I might leave it there! See you on the next challenge!

eta. 8. capybaras exist. how good is that. I follow an artist who is drawing capybaras in various situations for a 100 days of drawing challenge and it's making me happy. Also there's a video somewhere of a pelican trying to eat a capybara and the capybara is supremely unbothered and it's beautiful. Like at most it's like 'Do you mind?"

Okay, really gone this time!

Edit and revamp 12 October:

When I first posted this list at the end of August, it was my September TBR for pick_for_me and it was a lot shorter than it is now. I've divided it up a lot more, and I'll continue updating this for the rest of the year. My goal at the moment is to read a lot of the books that I own or have ended up with because I have no self-control on NetGalley, but I also have challenges to finish and a few new ones that I just want, dammit, so they're also on here. Where they apply to more than on sub-genre, I've listed them under both.

Need from the library/Amazon to finish a 2016 challenge:

~~Heat and Light by Ellen van Neervan (Literary fiction)~~ - finished November 2016
~~Letters to the End of Love by Yvette Walker (Romanc~~e)- DNF December 2016
~~Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander/J. K. Rowling (YA SFF)~~ - read October 2016
~~Fairest by Marissa Meyer (YA/SFF)~~ - read December 2016
~~Elenore by Faith Rivens (SFF)~~ - read December 2016
The Diary of Young Girl by Anne Frank (non-fiction)

New series instalments I will have to buy:

The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud
Disenchanted: the Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison

ARCs:

~~The Infinity of You and Me by J. Q. Coyle (YA SFF)~~ - read November 2016
~~The Dragon in the Garden by Erika Gardner (YA SFF)~~ - read September 2016
~~The Ill-Kept Oath by C. C. Aune (historical fantasy)~~ - DNF October 2016
~~Immortal Writers by Jill Bowers (YA SFF)~~ - DNF October 2016
The Fearless Travelers' Guide to Wicked Places (MG SFF)

I have the ebook:

~~The Mysterious Adventures of Becca Carlisle by Cate Morgan (steampunk)~~ - read September 2016
~~Infernal Ties by Holly Evans (YA SFF)~~ - DNF November 2016
Songspinner/The Bloodshade Encounters by K. C. Finn (YA SFF)
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (classic children's)

I own:

Speculative fiction:

~~Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell~~ - read November 2016
The Finisher by David Baldacci
~~The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss~~ - read October 2016
Heart of Brass by Felicity Banks
The Grief Hole by Kaaron Warren
The Great Unknown edited by Angel Meyer
Girlfriend in a Coma byb Douglas Coupland
The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas
Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson
Please Mr Einstein by Jean-Claude Carriere
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd
~~The Rook by Daniel O'Malley~~ - read October 2016

Literary fiction:

The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas
Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Mother of Dreams edited by Makoto Ueda
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Dreams of Speaking by Gail Jones
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Extinction by Thomas Bernhard

Historical fiction:

Scapegallows by Carol Birch
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago
Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh

Memoir:

Diaries of an Internet Lover by Dawn Porter
Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics by Jennifer Baumgardner
Warlpiri Women's Voices: Our Lives, Our History

Other:

The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty (YA contemporary)
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (Mystery)
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (Mystery)

That can help me finish a challenge:

The Mother of Dreams edited by Makoto Ueda
Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell - read November 2016
Pyramids by Terry Pratchett (SFF/satire)

Guide to terms:
YA = young adult
SFF = sci-fi/fantasy
MG = middle-grade (the age-group below YA)
DNF = did not finish