Ready, ya'll? It's fake-poll time!

[vanitashaze]

Using a Flickr photo as the base layer for a manip, while crediting the original artist, is:

- Tacky
- Awesome
- Sadly, no ticky box.

Putting your own cover of a song (i.e. that you've recorded) into a fanmix is:

- Tacky
- Awesome
- Lack of ticky box :(

Comments

[wordsatourbacks]

1. I think it is fine as long as the original Flickr photo has a Creative Commons license (and then it is okay to manip? I'm not sure how this works, but I guess?).

2. AWESOME.

3. I HOPE COLLEGE IS TREATING YOU RIGHT. *waves*

[vanitashaze]

1. It is very hard to judge. I'm so used to the fandom world - where pretty much everything, including other folk's fanworks, is fair game as long as you give shout-outs. But the real world is... not so much like that. I'm always surprised when I have to, you know, check for stuff when I'm doing RL art/writing/etc.

2. YAY. Still need to think up some sort of handle, though! I suppose I could always use vanitashaze, but where's the fun in that?

3. *waves back, from fucking Iowa`* College is wonderful! Most of the time. Though a surprising amount of it is, well, just like high school. Are you still in higher education?

`Still haven't gotten used to that one. Practically, yes - it's a lot like the rest of the US - but conceptually, the mind boggles.

I am the worst at replying to comments, especially on other people's journals; it's a fact

[wordsatourbacks]

1. I think if the original photo has a Creative Commons license you'll have to see if it's "Some rights reserved" and which those are.

2. Thought of one yet? ;)

3. I tried to think of cultural things for which Iowa is known, but I got nothin'. All I'm coming up with is that Dar Williams song (and she's not from Iowa). And nope!

I AM THE WORSER. No, wait.

[vanitashaze]

1. LEGALITY. What is this, I can't even -

2. Sadly, no. I'm balls at thinking up interesting band/musician names and my real name is A) not to be posted on the internets, and B) much to unwieldy besides.

3. Corn. And, recently, gay marriage. Of course, neither of those count as "cultural" so, um, the University of Iowa creative writing program? That's pretty famous, and in fact, a lot of the state (including Grinnell) is known for its writers & writing.

3B. Whoo! Is this a "congratulations" moment, or an "apologies" one?

You are so not worse. r. Er.

[wordsatourbacks]

1. I know! Psht, LEGALITY.

2. Aw. You could just use "vanitashaze"?

3. Oh yeah, Michael Cunningham got his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop! Heh, and many other writers I don't know. (The third thing I thought of was Iowa State football, but I definitely don't know much about that.)

3B. I guess it could be "congratulations"? It's been some time, hee.

Re: You are so not worse. r. Er.

[vanitashaze]

1. It is such a confusing and screwed-up and yet necessary social construct.

2. True dat! But there's always something satisfying/exciting in creating another nom de guerre for oneself. I am a big believer in the benefits of transformation.

3. The only Iowa-produced writer I'm familiar with is the one guy who wrote this really cool (and yet very confusing) YA murder-mystery novel whose name I can't remember. Something about snow? *wishes she could channel good writing now, actually*

3B. Oh. For some reason I was under the impression that you were (had been recently?) involved in higher-higher learning. But now that I think about it, I can't figure out why. Isn't it strange how these little bits of canon get lodged in your head?

Re: You are so not worse. r. Er.

[wordsatourbacks]

But there's always something satisfying/exciting in creating another nom de guerre for oneself.

That is very true!

Snow Falling on Cedars is the only murder mystery novel I can think of that incorporates the word "snow" in its title, but I know that's not it, given that the author's Washington state born and bred. I got nothin'! (I was wrong about the Iowa Writers' Workshop, though - not wrong about Michael Cunningham, but there are also a bunch of other famous writers I bet both of us recognize.)

Oh! No, you're not wrong about that, ahaha. Sorry, I haven't had any responsibilities in a while with respect to actually being on campus.

Re: You are so not worse. r. Er.

[vanitashaze]

No, that's not it, unfortunately. Maybe something about snow angels? I think it had one on the cover. I actually really wish I could remember, because I thought it was pretty hot shit at the time and I'm curious to see if it would withstand the test of time.

Iowa's main exports are writers and corn. There is an insane amount of modern American writers shuffling through at some point or another.

Aha! Damn, woman, stop confusing me! Now I am curious to know what this mysterious state of not-attachment (?) is.

Incidentally, I suspect you've already seen this, but just in case... If you like Sherlock Holmes and beautiful, hilarious, character-true transfic that honest to God makes your heart grow about three sizes: run, do not walk, to basingstroke's Intemperance.

Re: You are so not worse. r. Er.

[wordsatourbacks]

This reminds me of my never-found cowboy movie I watched on TV fifteen years ago (and probably not new then). All I ever remembered was that the main character was a sad cowboy and it wasn't El Dorado - I told some friends about this and they pointed out that that description could cover just about every cowboy movie out there. Your book description is a lot more specific, so I hope you end up finding it sometime!

I used to teach; I'm thinking about a different career. Unfortunately effects of health circumstances may limit the portability of what skills I have.

I am not really into Sherlock Holmes in any form, but I have indeed read that story via someone else's rec! It is excellent, and the type of gen I am always looking for.

*bemoaning lack of icons*

[vanitashaze]

All I ever remembered was that the main character was a sad cowboy and it wasn't El Dorado. I admit, I LOL'd pretty hard there. Because your friends are right - THAT IS EVERY SINGLE DAMN COWBOY MOVIE EVER MADE.

I'm sorry for that limitation, and do hope that you can find something that will fit your passions, health, and pocketbook. (What did you used to teach?)

GEN <3. I tend to like pairing stories more because I'm all about the non-familial love - especially how it intersects with, you know, reality - and I find that pairing stories (at least the good ones) tend to portray this with more nuance and depth (a lot of the gen I've found is.. I don't know, distant? Everyone is a closed-off world). But I love basingstroke's gen because it too is ALL ABOUT THE LOVE, especially Sherlock Holmes & Sherlock BBC fics.

Re: *bemoaning lack of icons*

[wordsatourbacks]

I tried to remember more details:
-Cowboy maybe had glasses? Dark hair, skinny, not that tall?
-I think there might have been another cowboy who was his specific antagonist, but I'm not sure
-The general color scheme of the movie was kind of yellow. Or at least one of the final shots, outdoors.
... Yeah, that's not much!

I was/am in a humanities field, and I taught in the college honors program. (I'm trying to be more circumspect about information online, considering things like this - being vague here is not because of you personally, just so you know!)

GEN <3. I tend to like pairing stories more because I'm all about the non-familial love - especially how it intersects with, you know, reality - and I find that pairing stories (at least the good ones) tend to portray this with more nuance and depth (a lot of the gen I've found is.. I don't know, distant? Everyone is a closed-off world).

You know, I thought about this for a while! At first I sort of agreed - a significant fraction of the gen stories I like have a certain quality of distance between the reader and what's going on with respect to romantic/sexual relationships in the story, like this one (probably my favorite HP fic ever). But then I thought about other gen stories I've liked, like these two, and I think those stories include pretty good insights into the romantic relationships featured, even though I would classify them as essentially gen because the stories focus on other things. (This is more true for the first of those two stories than the second. I link to HP stories here because I already have the recs/links on file!)

I read the four Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock BBC stories by Basingstoke at AO3 via your link and enjoyed them. (Black Books is my kryptonite, or whatever it is people say when they are totally weak for something. Bernard Black and Sherlock being related is an eerily plausible idea! Bernard is scary.) I half-heartedly tried poking around in people's bookmarks for similarly enjoyable gen in those fandoms, but didn't find anything. I have been contemplating this on and off for quite some time, but what is it about good gen that makes me want to 'ship the not-genetically-related characters in the relationship featured? I mean, when I have little to no interest in actually 'shipping them or reading shippy fic about them. (The latter conclusion reached after examining stories in that vein.) Platonic m/f and OT3 stories sometimes get me this way, too.

I have also been thinking about something vee_fic said: "The cruellest revenge I can think of to inflict on someone like Holmes is to ask him to solve the crimes chronicled on The Wire. The individual whodunnit is as nothing to the systems and structures of a struggling city's underbelly." (My own alienation from the whodunnit is probably one of the major reasons I've never been able to get into mystery serials in the Sherlock Holmes format - like House, for example. I think the reason Psych has gotten past my reservations is that in general it's so deeply unserious and hyperrealistic; usually, the characters might as well be living in a world made of brightly colored meringues, in terms of actual crimes and the solving thereof.)