zeegoeshere

So re: going to see My Chem, I decided to say fuck it, because who knows when I'll be in a financial spot of not having to pay rent again? Seize the day, etc. Seize the Frank Iero on September 3rd in Colorado. \o/

I spent a lot of time yesterday listening to Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, and you know, I realize that none of it is on purpose or anything, but I really like it when MCR and FOB have little musical similarities going on. Like, the bit about mausoleum doors in Cemetery Drive and the bit about mausoleums in Sugar, and the parts in Jetset Life where Gerard sings 'sugar'. I, um, I like imagining that during Summer of Like, whenever the respective bands played these songs it was like a smiley injoke between the bands. I've imagined this a lot lately? Shut up, I'm a dork who really likes it when bands like each other.

I spent most of last night recasting a QaF AU with starstillwonder where Gerard was Brian and Brendon was Justin. My life, you guys, I don't even know anymore.

I shouldn't write recs when the coffee hasn't quite kicked in yet, but hey, some fic that I've read recently and really loved:

Everyday Mysteries In The Summertime by wax_jism, Pete/Mikey. This is a prep school AU based off the I'm Not Okay video, but a different take on the concept than I've seen before. Wax draws every single character and setting so vividly, so that you're not just rooting for Pete/Mikey, you're paying attention to Frank and Ma Way and Gabe and of course, Gerard. Wax's fucked-up, fumbling, drunk, wonderful Gerard is such a thing of beauty, and she nails the Gerard-Mikey relationship. I was thinking about this fic for days after I finished it.

Tired Boys and Wired Eyes by imperfectcircle, Bill/Travis. So I basically want to marry this Travis voice. Perfect and spot-on, and the relationship between Bill and Travis is bizarre, funny, and really sweet, just as it should be. It also utilizes the rest of TAI and GCH + Gabe fantastically, and I laughed and kicked my feet with glee throughout the whole thing. My OTP done so so right, yay!

Unequivocal by stereomer, Frank/Gerard. I am totally the last person in fandom to read this (I hope), but in case I'm not, god, what are you waiting for? This is the epic story of My Chemical Romance. steromer follows them from the very beginning up to (practically) the present, and she tells it so well. I'm still boggling over how good this is, over how much care she put into the story, over how it hits every single emotional note it needs to. Funny and sad and happy and sometimes fucked-up, this is practically my MCR canon now.

Sometimes, fandom, you make it difficult for me to like you.

I'm sure many of you have already heard about this, but if you haven't, please check out this collection of links concerning the daily_deviant mods being clueless, offensive asshats. I can't even be articulate enough to discuss it here, but please, check out some of those posts, especially witchqueen's (here).

I just can't even comprehend how someone might not see that equating interracial relationships and bestiality is racist and wrong.

Lately, I've tried to distance myself from race meta in fandom, just because taking it so personally and getting enraged every time people were stupid was bad for my blood pressure. I found that the race relations I found looking outside of fandom were so depressing that I needed to be almost willfully blind to anything offensive in fandom to keep my fandom time fun. I made myself take a step back. But right now I'm pretty much shaking with rage, and it's not because I think race issues in fandom are so much more important now or something, it's because of the hypocrisy I'm seeing.

I find it interesting that in fandom, where people feel entitled to be outraged at lack of warnings in fic, lack of spoiler cuts, pairing labels or ratings, entrance into a locked community, etc, etc, the second anyone (especially if 'anyone' is non-white) points out something that's sketchy in terms of race, oh, they're using the wrong tone.

The message I keep getting, over and over, from fandom is that it's entitled to not be spoiled for anything, it's entitled to be warned if a character stubs its toe in fic, it's entitled to have BNFs bend over backwards in order to be nice and not cliquey, but I and like-minded fen like me aren't entitled to try and carve out a non-racist safe space for ourself, because we're not asking politely enough.

You know what? witchqueen's original email was ten times more polite than I would've been under the circumstances. (Seriously: Interracial relationships equated with bestiality.) And the post she made, after such an insulting brush-off from the mods, was again, much more composed and dignified than I would have been inclined to be. But no--apparently since she didn't say what she had to say while groveling, people are whining because of her tone.

It's become pretty clear to me that there *is* no proper tone that can be used while talking about race. No amount of politeness or coyness will actually make people listen, so fuck it. I've been trying to compose a post in my head on why people don't write Travis fic in bandom, for instance, but why am I even bothering? It seems to me that fandom will hear the same thing whether I accuse anyone who hasn't written Travis fic of being a bigot or whether I politely ask why people might feel uncomfortable writing Travis/Bill.

I just feel so tired of watching the same debates over 'tone,' the same hypocrisy and complaining that we're harshing white clueless fans' squee, the way it's okay to scream up and down about being accidentally spoiled but it's *not* okay to point out accidental racism. Fandom just doesn't seem to be learning.