Big thank you to all the Dutch voters that went out in droves to say NO to populism, scaremongering and nationalism. Now this is looking at you, France. After the train crash that was 2016 politics, let's make 2017 Year of Reason.

Late is better than never, right? Right??? With this in mind find here last year's Eurovison show listing - a vid show aiming to showcase European vidding talent, source and music and to celebrate the diversity of the European vidding community.

None of this would be possible without the vidders from all over the world who are contributing to this show, letting us show vids from their back catalogue, making premiere vids and providing 'vidder postcards' to introduce themselves and their vids. The latter have become an integral part of the show, setting it apart from other vid shows. The big perk of curating this show is getting to know all these lovely people and talented vidders across so many different platforms, nations and languages.

This year (well, last year) we had 13 vids (including 3 shiny premieres!!!!) in the show, two of the vidders were able to attend the convention, including Mathilde who was a first-time attendee and managed to join us despite a house fire, lack of funds and other adversities. and 6 send a vid postcard, giving the show again a very inclusive and personal feel.

Please check out the vidders vids and leave feedback at their journal, channel or tumblr to let them know that you enjoyed their work. For vids for lesser known European movies or TV shows I have included imdb links, in case you want to check out the source dircetly.

Despite repeated testing there are normally some bad/wrong links that sneak into my posts (it's a gremelin or some such thing, I'm sure), so please don't be offended if the link for your vid leads to Timelapse of paint drying or your name links to Sarah Pailin's website, just let me know and I'll fix it.

Retro Step-up by Norlack (Ukraine)
Source: Multi-fandom
Music: Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley (US)
"Put music to our troubles and we'll dance them away!" Aaron Weiss. This is a very dynamic, fun vid which is edited very tightly and looks utterly modern despite the source and music being half a century old by now.

Carousel by loki (Russia) * PREMIERE
Source: Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adele Blan-Sec (France)
Music: Peter Peter (Canada)
Dealing with suitors, monsters & sand in her shoes - just another day at the office for Adele. This vid is just as quirky as the movie. Great use of lyrics and narrative structuring make this accessible to anybody who has not seen the movie.This vid was commissioned specially for the show.

Wir Beiden by isagel (Sweden)
Source: Kommissar Rex (Austria)
Music: Juli (Germany)
The story of a detective and his dog. Or a dog and his detective? This is better than bromance, balm for the soul, fun, touching and sweet.

Honey And The Moon by anoel (US)
Source: Football RPF (Germany)
Music: Joseph McArthur (US)
This vid has a special place in my heart, the bromance, the optimism and enthusiasm of the team, and the 'aligning of the stars that made it all converge in (spoiler). And Anoel found just the right footage on and off pitch and wrapped it up as a lovely bromance story.

Ich Laufe by amnisias (Germany)* PREMIERE
Source: Freier Fall (Germany)
Music: Tim Bendzko (Germany)
"I'm running away, as fast and far as I can, and only when the feeling stops I'm finally home" or the German Brokeback Mountain.

Can't Pretend by feuwise (France)Source: The Following (US)
Music: Tom Odell (UK)
Violent and bloody, beautiful and mesmerizing - the relationship between hunter and hunted, between detective and serial killer. An obsession, an attraction, an infatuation. This vid captures it all. An no, this is not Hanibal.

Monument bycondnsdmlk (South Africa) *PREMIERE*
Source: Calvary (Ireland)
Music: Royksopp & Robyn (Norway/Sweden)
As all of condnsdmlk's vids this has stunning editing and beautiful visuals and unfolds at slow pace, but the pay-off is so worth it.

iieee by cherryice(Canada)
Source: Let The Right One In (Sweden)
Music: Tori Amos (US)
Why can't it be beautiful? A vid about friendship and otherness.

Truth is a Matter of Circumstance by Fortnoir (Italy)Source: Multi-fandom
Music: Dark Shadows Prologue Danny Elfman (US)
The Black Widow across time, place and media. I just love how this vid uses multi-media & multi-source material to flash out the story of Natasha Romanova. Very cleverly done.

Making Waves byniyalune (Swiss)
Source: Mad Max Fury Road (US)
Music: Fight Song by Rachel Platten (US)
Can you hear my voice this time? Great editing and movement troughout.

Firestarter by violace(Germany)
Source: Supergirl (US)
Music: Demi Lovato (US)
A celebration of Kara as the hero, and as the person under the costume, and the people who love her..

Jane Austin by Mathilde (France)
Source: Multi (US/UK)
Music: August's Rhapsody by Mark Mancina (US)
A celebration of Jane Austen, and all the fanfic writers and fangirls that came after her....such a fitting end for the vid show.

.......that the best response to last weeks events has come out of Scotland.
After all the emotionla turmoil, polarization and negativity going around this is a breath of fresh air. Just keep walking, America, you've overcome obsticals and hardship before, and you will do so again. Here's to the road ahead.

This vid was done very quickly, it's not beta-ed and it's still kind of unfinished becaused my tech played decided to be stubborn and would just crash any time I opened the vid, so most of my time 'working on the vid' was trying to get the darn thing to render. Note to slef, SV does not like HD mp4 source.

I kind of fell head over heel for Lucifer last season, despite plenty of arguemtns against it. But what can you do? Clearly I've got a thing for snarky, politically incorrect Brits.

Vid: Call Me Devil
Song: Call Me Devil
Artist: Friends in Tokio



Download here

Holy shit, Criminal Minds, what was that I just watched? (o)(o)

Clearly some h/c fangirls have invaded the writers room. And the fact that Thomas Gibson was directing and Shemar half naked for most of the episode gave the whole thing an extra layer of pain voyorism and slash on top of all the emotional and physical hurt. I'm still shellshocked.

( (oviously highly spoilery) pickspam after the cut )

This one is on par with Reid's heroin fuelled abduction back when. This should make for some great Reid/Morgan fic.

Hi, lovelies!

I am hoping to send out Christmas Cards again this year, though no garantee that they'll make it in time depending on where you're living (but who doesn't love a seasonal card out of season?). If you got a card year last year and haven't moved you should automatically get a card, everybody else, please leave your contact details in a comment.

Comments are screened, obviously.

Hope you've all remembered the faithfully departed during the day and are preparing yourself to fend of the evil spirits, witches and fairies tonight. And have a litte Halloween-themed clip while you wait.



( Confession... )

I think with the epilogue to episode 8 Killjoys just stole my heart.

Since dreamwidth won't upload pics dirctly from a computer you have to head over to LJ if you want the picspamy evidence...

So, VidUKon happened last weekend, and it was such great fun, as always.

It was lovely to meet up with old friends and get to know some new folks, too - *waves* at kabal42 , who made his way over from Denmark. Sadly, goodbyebird was held captive on a ship and refused all our suggestions of sending out pirates, the Royal Navy or Furiosa to rescue her, otherwise representation from Scandinavia would have been pretty much complete - anybody knows of any Finnish vidders?

The highlight of the con was as always the Premiere shows, which was quite a bit longer than usual, and of high quality. I'll have to do a separate vid rec post at some point, when all the vids are posted. We also had the obligatory room party on Friday, hosted with impeccable style by lithiumdoll and doccy . There was cake, and more cake, and birthday cake for such_heights . There might have been booze. There was rumor that at one point the whole con was present. Yay for large rooms and tolerant neighbours.

As always, there was a lot of enabling going on. Last year it was Lithy who forced offered Banshee on everybody, and she only had an evil laugh when I told her that it was giving me very serious show PTSD (no, seriously, I know few people with such an evil laughter.) charloween took it upon herself to turn nemonclature and myself into cool fans by dragging us to the cinema in the middle of the night to see Mad Max Fierce Furiosa. In a less ethical move she pimped Almost Human on a poor, unsuspecting soul in Canada by reccing the fab Gone Tech by blithesea. I mean, who does that - making people fall for a canceled show????

As always, apart from all the hanging out with all the lovely people I enjoyed the panels the most. It was a great mix between instructional, thinky and freeform, covering such diverse topics as Problematic Fandoms (odessie ),Use of Colour (mariks & brokenmnemonic )and The Year in Vidding (such_heights ).

But the bestes about VidUkon will always be the conversations, going all the way from fannish squee & meta to RL and back. I was so glad that charloween was there again, since she has the uncanny ability to know what I'm talking about when words actually fail me. Seriously, she can work with me just making some vague gestures and a desperate facial expression.

I found out yesterday that Sergei Polunin will be dancing Giselle at Naples San Carlo Theatre in August (yay for facebook on this count). And managed to get A) tickets (for peanuts, compared to Royal Ballet prices), B) a flight and C) a travel companion. I'm so stoked, you wouldn't believe it.

Polunin was the Principal Dancer at the Royal Ballet in London (youngest ever, at 19), and I'd heard (and seen) so many great things about him, but I kept posponing to go and see him because I was holding out for the perfect role, maybe Spartacus, or Romeo in the Nureyev choreography. And then he Polunin left the Royal Ballet 'over night' in 2012, to dance in Russia. And then he left there and announce that he might quit ballet altogether. So now I'm wiser, and I take what I can get, while I can get it, Well, given his track record, he might drop out last minute, but if not at least I've seen him live once. And on top of that I get a long summer weekend in Italy, and hopefully can swing by Pompei as well. Total win!

For all of those who won't be making the tip to Naples (yup, I'm gloating just a tiny little bit) I'm leaving you with this: