Anderson Cooper is in ur dumpster, saving ur world.

[charlieblue]

And now, in other slightly irrelevant, utterly frivolous news:

New layout!

charlie_d_blue


-- --

Also, an insta!Rec: Souvenirs by tearful_eye.

It's been around for a few weeks now, but for anyone who watches Life, is vaguely intrigued as to what this Life show lark is that everyone's talking about, or just in general enjoys a beautifully crafted, intense, rockin' vid, take a look. It's only a minute long.

And in non sequitur conclusion:

After reading all the brilliant pundits-meta over at the journals of bessemerprocess and sarken, I scribbled down some:



One of the reasons I adore political and pundit fandom so damn much? Apart from everything else that is wondrous and awesome (and made of impossible bumblebees, sparkly unicorns, lollipops, soapboxes and bantery coffee) about it, there is the fact that it is so much more open to the naturalized incorporation of actual ongoing international affairs and political process than pretty much any other fandom, West Wing included. (In West Wing, it is trickier to employ real news, because so much of it relates to the Bush/Obama presidencies, which are not canon in the West Wing. That is not to say that certain things, or even Bush and Obama cannot be incorporated, only that it takes much more skill and very careful manipulation of presidential timelines to make it believable.)

On the other hand, writing about real life pundits and presidents? Being able to using real, ongoing issues and events - for me at least - adds a whole new dimension to a fic, because now it is not only engaging on the level of having characters adapted from real life personas, but also from the extrapolation of the status and possible consequences of political affairs and phenomena that affect me, as a human being and a citizen of the world.

A lot of pundit fics do not focus on politics at all, and that 's fine, in fact, a lot of the time, it's much better and more enjoyable than plot-based fic, but the brilliant thing about this fandom is that politics, the broad, all-encompassing issues of the socio-politico-geographical world, that is our context, that is our canon and that is the highly influential background of the pundits.

And maybe it's just me, but that is precisely why this fandom is swiftly becoming one of, if not the most impressive I have ever encountered.



Peace out.

Comments

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Life. It's so good. Charlie is made of awesome. *goes to watch vid*

[bewarethesmirk.livejournal.com]

All right, you've convinced me. I think I have all the makings for someone who needs to get in political/pundit fandom(s). Your thoughts on incorporating RL political, socal & etc. affairs really gets me to thinking. So, I am coming to you for help.

What do you read, write, enjoy? What are good comms, or do you have any recs? I'm a political news junkie, so I've interested in reading almost anything especially if it's slashy.

[sirdrakesheir.livejournal.com]

This layout is a fucking beautiful thing.

[latara.livejournal.com]

I like that, even when we aren't directly dealing with it, there's some sensitivity to it. We pretty much all know somewhat what we are talking about re: public affairs, which is nice for me because I feel like I have all these interests which are kept separate but here I have fandom + politics together! Whereas some of my friends are like, "why are you watching some other governor's press conference?" we are like, "OKAY BLAGO, LEGO MAN OR CABBAGE PATCH KID?"

[bessemerprocess.livejournal.com]

I love the general level of political/current event awareness in these/this fandom and getting to roll it up all together and create amazing stories. Generally, I see all fiction as a way of dealing with/learning from/analyzing the world we live in, and being able to do so without having to fictionalize the events and politics makes the work stronger, or at least, more immediate.

Also, I just love all of you guys and all of this fandom's amazingness.

[yukitheawesome.livejournal.com]

Okay, first things first: I love the layout, I love your music title, and I REALLY love your comment links.

And yeah. Pundit/political is the greatest thing since sliced bread. (Because, you know, before, we had to tear at politics and eat it. Now it's all nice and neat.)

[vvvaudevillian.livejournal.com]

At 3am, I can but coherently say to your entry, oh hell yes.

[irenak.livejournal.com]

Life! Huzzah! This is totally my ninja fandom, slowly taking over my flist one obscure fruit reference at a time.

I have to say as someone who's only peripherally involved with political fandom, I'm absolutely fascinated by it. I think it's partially because, well, these are Real Live People, doing Real Live Things and getting fanboy-ed/girl-ed as a result. It's not something you expect from geek culture, let alone from late Gen X-ers and Gen Y, who all very much have a reputation for being disengaged (though not always deservedly so). It's exciting to see people engage on this level, especially after experiencing such an extended period of time frustrated with the political process, rather than inspired by it.

Also, the fact that it's so utterly embraced the lulzy-ness of it all slays me. Fandoms with a sense of humor about themselves tend to be a rarity, so it's nice to see one that doesn't take itself so seriously.