donutsweeper

I knew Tracy Chapman's Fast Car had been covered by a country music singer last year and won some awards but don't pay much attention to the music world but then I saw her Grammys performance and wow, all the memories came flooding back. I had (and probably still have... somewhere) her tapes and absolutely love her so much. I have to admit I love that Luke Combs a) didn't change the lyrics of the song at all, including the "check out girl" line and b) looks so absolutely in awe and unbelieving of his luck to be able to be on stage with her here:

Watch on YouTube

(there's a better version that doesn't embed at the Grammys site here and on tumblr here.

She still looks so amazing and her voice is still so incredible.

In exchange news,

hurtcomfortex tagset has opened!! And now for the perpetual 'have I ever liked anything ever' brain fog as I try to think of what to nominate. Noms don't close until the 25th so I have time.

Humorously, I opened up HelloChinese for the first time in ages and apparently fell into a different dimension when I did so because this was what it asked me to translate

(interesting, now discord won't let the stuff post .png be trimmed, I wonder if that means the image will go poof soon)

This week's

recthething MDZS/Untamed recs:

For the Love of Quilting by Scrippio (5k)
Summary: In which Lan Zhan makes a friend at a quilt show. (cute modern AU)

Long Road Home by ValiantBarnes (Cimila) (58k)
Summary: Wèi Yīng points them east, when the dust has settled and it's just him and A-Yuàn left. East, towards the home he once had in Yúnmèng. He hasn't been further east than Yílíng city in a decade for a reason. There's nowhere else for him to turn, with the world collapsing around him and everyone else he knows already victim to the hungry dead. Wèi Yīng knows he'll find a safe haven at Lotus Pier; he's even got a nifty little talisman that will guarantee him access, no matter how unwelcome he is. No matter how safe the destination, the journey is a long trip by foot with a five year old.

After an isolated winter, they don't run into Sòng Lán; Sòng Lán runs into them. (I don't usually read zombie apocalypse fics or WWX pairings other than Wangxian, but this one intrigued me and those are interestingly combined with modern-with-cultivation with great world building and characterization and growth. As a note, despite the summary, the fic is about the trip to Lotus Pier but ends right before they get there. Also, while there's a lot of implied character death, no main character has theirs described.)

The breadbag rug is still on hold awaiting more bags, but after watching far too many paleolithic/neolithic/ye olden days crafting vids I decided I wanted to try my hand at making cordage/simple 2ply rope but it has been stupidly hot and I don't have any nettle/bramble/actual natural can-be-turned-into-cordage material anywhere nearby so I decided to gather up all the plastic scraps from the rugs and the strips of pillow-style bubblewrap I never throw away and give it at go with those. Do I need 5m/17' of plastic cordage? No. Do I have it and plan on making more? Yes.

(I actually learned a lot doing this. Next time I'll try using more even-sized (and much thinner) strips and keep my twists tighter)

I also did a bunch of Tunisian crochet swatches, also learned from watching youtube vids. It's neat, similar but not quite to traditional crochet, but the detail aspect strained my eyes a bit more than regular crochet and doing anything more than the size of a swatch would require buying new hooks (which are not cheap) so I'm not sure I'll ever do any real projects with it.

I have started a zig zag v-stitch blanket in attempts to use up some of the yarn cones I got back in college when a furniture company went out of business. It's decent yarn, just basic wool, nothing special (I want to say I spent about $40ish? for it all and I've used up/donated more than half already but this is what is left - I'm using the blue and black for the afghan) Do I need another afghan? We all know the answer to that (No.) I strongly suspect this is going to end up as yet another afghan with weird dimensions, but oh well.

As has been discussed in many places, Fall Out Boy did a "1990-2023 update" to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" but... errr... it misses the point to the original in nearly every way in my opinion- the fact it's not in chronological order bothers me SO MUCH but also they events are just random, fairly US-centric, cultural touch points rather than feel of being inundated by an ever building, overwhelming number of events (that go on and on and on and on....) but it reminded me of a similar "update" from 2020 by Dylan White (the youtube link, which requires signing in and confirming your age) that did get closer at matching the original's feel with that. The line, "2020 takes too long, this year needs a second song" is also just.. too on point. Sigh.

Anyways, recent recs from

recthething (tumblr art from dmbj, doctor who, merlin and st:ds9 and mdzs/the untamed fic):

DMBJ/Mystery of the Abyss - I watched the mystery of the abyss movie for the first time last night and ohhhhh my god. hello. HELLO?? I’m. they. augh. heihua gets to me in some kind of way for real. like. christ. (Absolutely amazing short comic with one of the best hospital bedside vigils I've ever seen, no real canon knowledge necessary so if you like bedside vigils go check it out.)
Doctor Who - Celestial✨ (Gorgeous art of Thirteen surrounded by One through Twelve)
Merlin
- Merlin (gorgeous Merlin and Arthur art)
- So. I drew that “Arthur’s fished out of the lake” au of mine (utterly hilarious comic)
- Merlin and Arthur (beautiful colors in this)
ST:DS9 - Kira Time (really cute sketch of Major Kira)

Playing Possum by DizziDreams (1.5k)
Summary: Lan Wangji is woken in the night by the sound of animals fighting, and there is more to the opossum he rescues than there seems. (short and cute fic)

A War of Stone and Silence by kitsunealyc (4k)
Summary: Lan Wangji leaves the Lan Sect to walk the single plank road with Wei Wuxian, but some ties cannot be so easily removed as a forehead ribbon, and some arguments must be written in stone before others will listen. aka, Lan Wangji gets in a Wall of Discipline texting argument with the Lan elders until Wei Wuxian has had enough. (Burial Mounds Settlement Days canon divergent AU featuring the Lan Sect rules and an unsuspecting voice of reason)

Huzzah for June being nearly over.

Mother Nature is still out to get us, since my last post we've had both snow here and highs in the 90s with high humidity. Yuck.

Have two weeks of

recthething recs (NIF, MDZS, DMBJ. Fics, art and a vid):

NIF: Accidental Immortal by DC_Derringer (34k)
Summary: Lin Shu took the bingxu pill and rode off to glorious battle for the empire he had fought so hard to protect. He fought, he fell, but then he woke up again. For the next 1500 years he wandered the world, seeing the faces of his friends over and over again as they reincarnated around him never recognizing him again. But one face was missing in all his centuries of living - Xiao Jingyan. (really fascinating non-AU(technically?) modern set post-canon fic.)

NIF: Conversations with Myself (2.5k, Unsent Letters 2022 fics, still anon)
Summary: Letters that Mei Changsu and Su Zhe have exchanged. (Or, Mei Changsu has never been one to not invest wholeheartedly into his schemes. Even ones that involve a paper-thin false identity) (a really interesting take on how Mei Changsu might have established his Su Zhe persona)

MDZS/Doctor Who fusion: Rule 3001: Do Not Blink by EHyde (4k)
Summary: “There’s a carving by the entrance, but I can’t read it. It looks—old.” Jingyi stepped closer, reached out a hand to touch the rock. “Do not...blink? Don’t blink,” he repeated. “What does that mean?” Lan Sizhui would never have guessed that investigating a statue would lead to an encounter with a mysterious stranger, an adventure across time and space, and startling revelations about both Hanguang-jun's past and his own. (short but utterly delightful)

MDZS/CQL: All the ways that you remain by Spodumene (23k)
Summary: When Lan Zhan must return to Shanghai for a month, he leaves his beloved home in the care of Wei Ying, a timely new acquaintance. But what happens when Lan Zhan returns to find that Wei Ying has nowhere else to go? (gentle and sweet modern AU)

MDZS/CQL: stay by my side by ravenditefairylights (28k, MDZS Reverse Big Bang: 2022)
Summary Snippet: a boy, a god and a rebellion against the empire (wonderful AU with numerous canon elements where Lan Zhan ascended to godhood and after answering a small boy's prayer finds himself drawn into his life again and again)

Untamed Vid: Whistle by hexenmeister. Summary: can you 吹 my 簫 baby, 簫 baby, let me know (AO3 link)

DMBJ art: Who Wants To Live Forever? Summary: Hei Xiazi through the years... (a wonderful juxtaposition of two sketches with Hei Xiazi, a quasi-immortal, having a bite to eat at the same corner, years apart - DMBJ Gen Exchange 2022 work, still anon)

Crafting-wise I made a bunch of octopuses for daughter's cat but forgot to take pictures and have been spending quite some time working on the rug I mentioned about a month ago. Original plan for it once finished has fallen through, but I'm going to finish it anyway because, well, rug.

I also spent some time backing up all the (unlocked) fics I've recced to the wayback machine. I was kind of happy to see that out of a year and a half of recs, well over 200 fics, and only one was deleted from AO3. I also wound up rereading a lot of them. How unsurprising.

Oh, and thanks for the birthday wishes everyone! After a rocky start it turned out to be a nice day and although I did not get my birthday donuts, son has promised to pick some up for me soonish so I'll get them eventually. 50 is unsurprisingly not much different than 49, although it can make an age difference feel a lot wider, especially when I notice some actors/people in fandom are younger than my kids. Oh well, nothing I can do about that.

Under the Skin inspired me to look into Tan Jianci's other things, including some of his music performances and videos and despite not being much into music generally, I have to admit, this video is... well, I'll let it speak for itself ("LadyBro 闺蜜" official MV, English subtitles, featuring M.I.C.'s Steelo and Tan Jianci):

Watch on YouTube

(How this got past censors, I have no idea)

The hurtcomfort exchange is suppose to reveal next week but there's still a bunch of pinch hits that need to be claimed, hopefully they'll get picked up soon.

I wanted to share this with you all- thousands of old 78s are being digitized and uploaded to archive.org and now available for listening completely free and legally- collection here, article with info about the project here. Eventually 400k songs will be available.

TV-wise, I'm not thrilled with the direction Wynonna Earp took last night, but not surprised by it either. Loved Killjoys though, especially for the flashback and also D'Av's character development. Stitchers is still decent enough a watch, totally as expected for a Freeform (former ABC Family) show. Midnight, Texas has been keeping my interest as well- probably due to it being adapted from books there's quite a bit of world building that's been being revealed in dribs and drabs but I've liked what it's shown so far.

My remix has been fighting me. I will prevail though. I will.

Crossposts: http://donutsweeper.livejournal.com/565008.html

I'm not hugely into music and usually official vids leave me apathetic at best, but I thought I'd share this one as one that gets so many things right. "Brave" by Sara Bareilles, a song about not letting yourself be limited by outside forces and basically just being yourself, has one of the most body positive videos I've seen in a long time. Instead of the various dancers being the skinny, perfectly shaped white girls we see over and over in the music industry they are *people* - men and women of different sizes, shapes and ages and all embracing the message of the song. Give it a look:

Watch on YouTube

Playing for Change is a foundation dedicated to connecting the world through music. Here is the Ben E. King classic "Stand By Me" done by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it traveled the globe. Listen and be amazed.

Watch on YouTube

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.