You're gonna be bothered by how cool I am.

[This icon from Firefly is the closest thing to a Jane Austen icon that I have.]

It took forever, but I finally caught up with the Lizzie Bennet Diaries (and other assorted media elements of the story) last night. I have to say that I wasn't terribly impressed with the first few episodes, so it took me a bit to get into it. But it's really well done and very compelling. There are two Big Picture things I love about it:

1) I love how they've brought all this into modern day. So much of the plot of the novel hinges on proprieties of the time in which Austen wrote it that I imagine it's difficult to translate into a present day context. Mr. Bennet buying Enron stock, Darcy being heir to a media empire, Mr. Collins's proposal being a job offer, and even the fact that sex is a thing that single people can have and it's not a bad thing that ruins one's life are all excellent choices that make this a real adaptation and not just a transposition.

2) I love that, even though Lizzie does most of the vlogging, the story isn't as centered on her and often isn't terribly sympathetic to her. A lot of characters get to shine here, with Lydia being the most dramatic and pleasant surprise. There are winks and nods to Austen's other novels here, but Lydia's arc reminds me a bit of Marianne Dashwood.

Okay, now for some stream of consciousness reactions. I didn't start doing this until I was somewhere in the 30s in Lizzie's vids, so the early stuff didn't get commented on.

( Whaaaaaaat. )

As if I needed another reason to be ZOMGEXCITED about the forthcoming Muppets movie, check out their awesome parody on the trailer for David Fincher's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

And OMG DID I JUST SEE THE "MANAMANAH" PUPPETS?!!!1




Thanksgiving week, y'all!

If you haven't seen it, PotterPuppetPals have uploaded a new (well, it's a few weeks old) video, with an ALL NEW GINNY PUPPET! Which I suspect is actually just the Ron puppet with a hair extension. ;-)

I love how smooth and awesome puppet!Harry is.

I have literally been searching for this online periodically for several years now, since before there was a YouTube, in fact. And now some awesome soul has uploaded it. I'd better capture it soon, before it gets taken down.

This happened when I was in college, and when my roommate and I saw it, we spent the next several days bursting into laughing fits at random moments. The greatest on-court fight in the history of basketball. Larry Johnson of the New York Knicks. Alonzo Mourning of the Miami Heat. And Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, impersonating a hammock.

If only the NBA were this much fun nowadays.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the modern holiday classic "Mary, Did You Know". If you are, this will be even more hilarious. If not, it will still be hilarious. I particularly love the constant shower of presents and red and green regalia.

I give you ... VADER, DID YOU KNOW. Now excuse me, I have to finish laughing myself to death.

I know this has been around a while, but if you have not yet seen this, click immediately.

If you *have* seen it, click again, because you know it's hilarious.

And be careful with that stick.

[Using someone's copy, because the original embed cuts off for some reason.]

30 days of HP Meme - The End

30. Whatever tickles your fancy
Well, I hope this tickles *your* fancy. I've been wanting to make this since at least the build up to the Goblet of Fire movie, because it never fails to crack me up how everyone's hair is SERIOUS BUSINESS and can potentially ruin a character for some fans. I mean, seriously - HAIR. I apparently wasn't the first person to do a video to this song, though I flatter myself that mine is better. :P

I give you ... The Hair of Harry Potter.



( Days 1-29 )

Sue me, I love this. It's so incongruous. I especially love the tweaks to the real Fight Club dialogue - "If this is your first invitation to Fight Club..."

But hey, where's Catherine Moreland? And does this mean Lizzy and Fanny are ( SPOILER )?

I pretty much wore out most of the "blockbuster" classic moments from Oscar years past last year, but as more clips start to show up on YouTube, I'm finding lots more good stuff.

This was from the first year I ever remember watching the Oscars, and though I can hardly fathom such ambivalence now, my family and I were literally flipping channels one night and happened to land on it, saying "Hm, the Oscars are on - let's watch." (Fast-forward to now, when I have the Oscars on my calendar and have requested not to be called for work.) I did a lot of cheering that night back in 1992, as a movie that I had actually seen and enjoyed (and which would eventually become my favorite film ever) won in all the major categories.

It was a big deal, too, that for the first time ever an animated film was nominated for Best Picture (an accomplishment that only just this year has happened for the second time), and three songs from that movie were up for Best Original Song. They did a separate number for the title ballad, but combined the two upbeat numbers, "Belle" and "Be Our Guest", for a great showstopper, featuring the original voices of Belle (Paige O'Hara), Gaston (Richard White), and Lumiere (Jerry Orbach).

"Be Our Guest" has become almost unbearably cliche, especially after Disneyland started using it in their marketing, but the original song never (NEVER) fails to make me smile. There's something about the end of that song and Jerry Orbach's soaring "pleeeease beeeeeee oooooooour gueeeeeeeeeest!" that - I'm not kidding - makes me so indescribably joyful I get tears in my eyes.

This is one of those times. I wasn't wild about this song in its original incarnation by Avril Lavigne, but when the cast of Glee covered it, it was one of the finer moments in the series so far. And the whole notion of friends sticking by their friend brought to my mind a rather obvious parallel.

Many, many people have done Harry Potter fanvids to this song, but not for the 'Glee' version. Also, most people have focused on Harry or the Trio, but I've kind of expanded it to the Good Guys. And yeah, couldn't resist slipping my shipping agenda in there a bit. ;-)