( So, I've seen the pictures of the new outfit )

So, as I was replying to comments on Post-Tour Blues, ( story spoilers )

I'm totally going to be rewatching this when I get another free five hours, btw. Oh, and I'd love to read people's positive reviews of CoE if they have them. Because I kinda think that this was the strongest writing that Torchwood has had over the entire course of its run (though "They Keep Killing Suzie" comes close, but it only had to sustain for one episode rather than five), as well as containing some of the best acting.

( more, now with spoilery )

( So, I finally got my chance to watch this (spoilers) )

Title: The Post-Tour Blues
Summary: Kris had never really been any good at letting go of Adam.
Pairings: Kris/Adam; some Kris/Katy
Rating: R/NC-17; Adult; Sexual Content
Notes: Written for the 'Kradam' appreciation post in ontd_ai (which is basically where I've been hiding for the last couple of weeks, even after I got spoiled there, which is kinda funny).

( He'd never expected to meet someone like Adam. )

Title: World Goes Round
Summary: A day in the life of a new beginning.
Pairings: Kris/Adam
Rating: PG/PG-13

( Adam was, no shit, the luckiest gay man in the whole fucking world. )

Title: Kinda Like Yoko Ono
Summary: Everything is gone, but everything else has started to happen.
Pairings: Kris/Adam
Rating: G/PG

( Falling in love with a guy was never on Kris's list of life goals. )

I wanted to mention that since I'm watching Torchwood tomorrow (it, um, took me a while to get over knowing a major spoiler and hyping myself back up to watching), which means that I'll, you know, start checking my flist again. However, if there is anything that y'all really wanted me to read or to know, drop me a link and I'll check it out, since there's good chance my flist will actually hit the wall at some point, since it's been, gosh, well over two weeks since I checked it.

(and I realized that my self-enforced flist blackout also caused me to miss some important things and I totally apologize and I still love y'all lots and lots)

Grr.

I was looking forward to watching all the episodes together. I purposefully have avoiding even checking my flist or any DW/TW related sites. And a community about a completely different show just spoiled me.

Before I get into the Epic Awesome of the Concert (with Photos), I want to share the results of What Not To Sing's S8 Camp Should-A-Been replay.

( And the winner, based on the round-by-round merit of their performances only is: )

Back to what happened in the world where things other than pure performance matter: the concert!



( details )

All in all, a highly enjoyable night. I'm glad I went.

So, I went to Dante's (in Portland, OR) last night to hear KANE sing. It was really awesome, because Chris's birthday was the other day, so we got to sing him happy birthday, plus his castmate from Leverage (Aldis Hodge who plays Alec Hardison) showed up to introduce him and to get us to sing, and Jensen Ackles stopped by on his way up to Vancouver to join him up on stage for a song.

Click here to see the gallery

So, saw RENT today! Adam and Anthony were, as expected, totally brilliant, but I found myself adoring this cast's Mimi and Maureen nearly as much. I will try to gather my brain together to talk more about that later.

My mom was great for going with me (and jic) to that, but her other amazing thing was totally unexpected.

I showed her the Kris Allen stuff I've collected (as well as the Adam stuff -- she prefers Kris, too, voice-wise) and mentioned that they were going to be having their Portland concert while we were out of town. And she was all sweet and sad with me, but then I mentioned that they had a concert in Tacoma on the 7th and she was all, "borrow my car and go!"

So. Yes. I now have a ticket for the 7th to see the American Idol tour.

Tour rehearsal 'interviews':
Kris interviews Allison and Adam; they interview him back (and Anoop interviews Matt)

They look like the most adorable group of friends ever. If they were any cuter... well, I'm not sure how that could happen.

Highlights (all of it, but, yes): Adam promises to help Kris with his clothes for tour, Katy is coming to some shows... so that she and Adam can hang out, Allison imitates a star-struck fan.

ETA: Oh! It looks like some more are still popping up -- there's one with Matt interviewing Anoop now. And now ones with Lil and Megan!

As I go through all the stuff on Kris Allen, I am so disappointed by the crappy, crappy research exhibited by anyone attributing his win to homophobia or the idea that Arkansas cheated (possibly out of homophobia). Especially when so many of them admit to watching Adam on youtube and not even having seen Kris perform. Yeah, that's a fair assessment of their respective skills (also, I bet that means that none of them even voted, so. Yeah).

As a queer (bisexual) woman - get the fuck off my side. Thanks.

Kris did not play to the 'Christian' vote (those went to Gokey up until, oh, Kris beat him on Top 3 week). He played to the laid-back, acoustic-loving audience, while Adam played to the grand-production, range-loving audience. They were pretty much as opposite as you can get, performance-wise. That's why the finale was so awesome, because they were very different artists who absolutely respected the other person's approach (Kris is so bowled over by Adam's reprise of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction; it's adorable). And I particularly hate that they use Kris's natural modesty ("Adam deserved this.") to 'prove' that Kris knew the hate vote got him the win. No. If they'd watched a single non-Adam second of the show, they would have seen that Kris was constantly giving props to the other contestants and underestimating his own popularity and skills.

Just. Grr. I'm glad that this stuff doesn't appear to be showing up anymore, but it really shouldn't have shown up at all.

I really just like Kris's stuff more and more. Ain't No Sunshine, She Works Hard for the Money, and Heartless were flat-out masterpieces. His version of Falling Slowly is one of the most touching songs I've ever heard. The Way You Look Tonight was pure Rat Pack in all the best ways (ah, and this is where my feelings of distaste for Matt's singing come from, I think, because My Funny Valentine is one of my favorite songs and he just... sapped all the glorious ambiguity and beauty out of it. Dunno, I should maybe get over it because I don't hate him on other songs) that did suffer a bit from horrible camera work (I can only just barely see Kris kicking it up with the mic-stand! Bad editors!).

How Sweet It Is and Remember the Time are lovely and romantic and Come Together is downright sexy (and, of course, Adam's Whole Lotta Love won Rock Night, but it was tailor-made for him. If he hadn't rocked the house down, he wouldn't be the performer he is). All She Wants to Do is Dance got buried by the mosh pit set-up, but the studio version sounds just fine. Apologize was good live and utterly fantastic in the studio cut. Man in the Mirror is energetic and sincere -- if I'd seen the original airing of that performance, I might have become a fan on the spot! I swear, I could listen to Kris sing all day and night. His voice is so beautiful.

As it stands, I've saved nearly all of Kris's live performances (... all but ASWTDID, his first try at No Boundaries, and Renegade -- that's not how you do a duet, Gokey. Grr. Sing with your partner, not over him; notice Kris's duet with Keith Urban where they worked together and each was allowed to shine. That's a duet.), most of Adam's, and only a few others. My favorite live performance remains Heartless, but my favorite studio is Apologize. For Adam, my favorite performance of his, both studio and live, is Ring of Fire.

Though Kris showed a lot of talents over the course of the season (singing, guitar, piano, humility coupled with stage presence, being utterly gorgeous - okay, that last one isn't exactly a talent, but it doesn't hurt), the one that won him the trophy was, no doubt, his ability to take a song and make it completely his. The two most obvious showcases for that gift are She Works Hard for the Money and Heartless, but it's something that's clear in everything he sings (I played his Come Together for my dad and he just adored the arrangement and Kris's voice. He was impressed because he's a huge Beatles fan and Kris really knocked it out of the park for him).

So, yeah. And I went and got the Itunes pass for him. Tour videos!

So. There's this little tv show called American Idol. And maybe I glanced at it once in, like, fourth season and said, "eh. whatever. Simon's kinda cute but he's also an asshole, and I don't care about anyone else." and then didn't really think about it much. But maybe some people (*cough*astolat*cough*) wrote some fic, so I tuned into the finale of S7 and it was... okay? I guess. And I've liked various random songs and artists that have come out of Idol, though often without knowing that's where they came from.

S8 happened and I wasn't really noticing. Some people had links embedded to a really neat version of Ring of Fire as performed by one Adam Lambert but, while I enjoyed it, it didn't get me into the show.

In my slashy-reading travels, I saw this 'kradam' thing popping up and ignored it for a while. Because I was busy reading other fandoms. Then, and I can't remember how or where, but a few days ago I heard Kris Allen sing.

I still do not have powerful enough words to express how his singing makes me feel.

Have spent much of the last couple of days inhaling this season of Idol. I also have listened to the cd that Kris made a couple of years before Idol ("Brand New Shoes"). Of all the songs I've heard him perform, his Top 3 Heartless is my absolute favorite (gusty, clever, beautifully-arranged and sung. I'm in awe), but I've liked everything I've heard him sing (and outright adored most of it).

I'm so glad that I didn't find out about Kris Allen until after he was already the American Idol, because it looks like being a Kris fan involved many sleepless nights of worry.

But all this means that I'm currently a bit disappointed that I made plans to be out of town on July 5th, not being prescient enough to know that I would fall in love with Kris Allen's music and want to see him on tour. They're even kicking off here!

1. I've decided to watch Enterprise (I stopped part of the way through the 1st series when it originally aired). I like T'Pol even more than I did before (which was lots), dislike Archer a lot less, and my complete love for Michael (Connor Trinneer) on SGA appears to have transferred over to his character Trip on ENT. Still hate the theme song, though, (why, producers? even if you had to do a song with words, why "Faith of the Heart"?). My feelings for the rest of the characters are roughly the same (mostly, I liked them, but my dislike of Archer overpowered everything else)

2. Nick Jonas tweeted that he's successfully graduated (from high school)! Good for him.

3. Kings returns today. I've already got my DVR set up to record it. Very sad that the pre-order for the dvd set says 'complete series'. *sad eyes*

4. Finals are next week! And then I have three and a half weeks before summer term starts up.

5. I should be submitting to Premieres (for VVC) either today or tomorrow. Which is yay.

6. I'm seeing RENT! at the end of this month. With Adam and Anthony. And I heard it being advertised on the radio the other day, which is awesome.

7. *pouts* I want Eureka and Psych to start up again right now! I need my awesome BFF shows (and apart from the coolness that is Jack and Henry, I love Jack's relationship with his daughter, Zoe. A lot. Though I don't actually ship Jack/Henry the way I do Shawn/Gus, I just find their friendship the most compelling part of the show).

attitude: impatient

Written for st_xi_kink.

Title: Don't Bring Me Flowers
Summary: Jen Kirk is being courted and, for reasons that are perfectly logical, Spock objects.
Rating: R/NC-17; Adult; Sexual Content

( I've never been courted... )

I'm reading "Killing Time" and holy shit, you guys, this is hella slashy. There's the fact that Kirk and Spock have an 'open door' policy regarding each other's minds (in fact, Spock wonders if the reason that he's having the same dreams as Jim is because he might be picking them up). ( more )

Just finished "Dagger of the Mind" in my TOS rewatch (note: started with "Where No Man Has Gone Before" because it is so obviously before the rest: Gary's there, no Uhura, Sulu in the wrong color uniform, and then went through the rest in disc order, something discovered to be a bit of a mistake for the two episodes filmed next, as Uhura was there, but in gold! (she looks much better in red, btw). Also, have found women in pants in this version as well. It would appear to be fully optional both in TOS and in XI). We've just gotten into the third disc and have already run across so many sci-fi tropes. I wonder which TOS invented and which it merely adapted to its purposes (did anything do 'fuck or die' before ST?).

XI recs: ( 14 recs; still spoilers for new movie )

TOS recs: ( 3 recs )

So, there's this epic XI kinkmeme going on (st_xi_kink). It's already up to three parts (with thousands of comments and over five hundred stories). Check it out -- there's slash, het, and even some gen.

I'm writing a bit for it (all K/S).

I finished one in the first part: here (the prompt was(  kinda long )). Rating R.

I'm currently working on one in the second part: here (the prompt is "Kirk/Spock. Clichefic, plz: Kirk falls into freezing body of water, Spock has to warm him up to save his life. Sex follows. Naturally."). Rating NC-17.

And I just started doing one in the third part: here (the prompt is "Kirk/Spock, based on Jane Austen's Persuasion."). Rating G - PG.

I will eventually clean these up and post them on Dwdth and LJ.

First, four things:

1. I wrote something for the anon XI kinkmeme and am currently debating whether to repost it on my journal (which would effectively take away the anonymity). So. That may or may not happen.

2. Have been rewatching TOS for... purposes and damn those dresses are short. Much shorter than the skirts in the new movie.

3. All of the interview material and just about everything that you can find about the new movie talks about the 'epic bromance' of Kirk and Spock. For people who are not Original Series (TOS) fans, it might be interesting to know that the original series kinda started out as a three-lead show. There's been a sort of... winnowing away over the years (and I include the movies in this), where while Bones is a great friend of Kirk's, the Kirk-Spock bond is prominently displayed as the most important relationship in either of their lives. ( brief spoilers for XI )

4. Successfully raided my mom's collection of ST novels -- Ishmael, How Much for Just the Planet? and Dwellers in the Crucible were what I was specifically looking for (and I found them) but I also nabbed a few more.

And now, there are XI fic recs:( 11 recs; spoilers for the new movie )

I also have a TOS/Original Movies era fic to rec:

1. Universe Within a Heart by farfallacaqui. It's Kirk/Spock and it's set during Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Spock talks to whales!