Cori Lannam

How could I forget my favorite Election Day tradition??

Okay, so it has nothing to do with actual politics, but that's not a bad thing at this point.

* Got my merlin_holidays assignment! I'm very excited and have already started writing a bit, though I have a ton of research to do before I can get too far into the plot. But it's going to be fun, I hope.

* I'm also scribbling away at two fics for round 1 of marguerite_26 and novemberlite's Kinkspiration Challenge. Am sincerely hoping I don't somehow drop dead with this notebook open somewhere; would be harder to explain than usual.

* Duran Duran News! John Taylor is publishing his autobiography. It's due out next fall. Needless to say, I will be pre-ordering that shit.

John's description: “This book recounts the million tiny seductions that are required to make the journey from English suburbia to selling out Madison Square Garden—seductions that go by a hundred different names; family, friendship, romances, collaborations and strategic alliances. Here is my journey and where it took me; into fantastic success, more than a little decadence, darkness, and finally, I like to think, a little enlightenment.”

Maybe it'll finally push me to finish the last Questioning story.

When someone says to you, "Simon Le Bon and John Taylor are in a sauna with a bag of viagra right now"

and you have to ask, "Is that a fic, or something Simon and John are tweeting about doing?"

it might be time to lay off the RPS fandoms for a while.


Also, this is the only Duran-related icon I have left since my paid account expired last week, but I think it's going to be the only one I need for a while!

-- finally got a haircut. It came out AWFUL. I looked like I just escaped from the 60s. Wearing a helmet. I was hoping it would be a little better once I washed it and styled it myself, but no, it's even worse. I'm going to have to let it grow out (again!) and then crawl back to my old stylist in DC and beg her to fix it.

-- listened to the rest of the new Duran Duran album. Well, "the rest" excepting all the various exclusive bonus tracks they're releasing in various stores/countries. Big time obsessing over "It's Too Bad You're So Beautiful" (I'll post separately about that at some point).

-- went to the movies. The Lincoln Lawyer and Paul were both really good. I laughed so hard at Paul, I really thought I was going to injure something. I definitely recommend it to any fan geek who's ever been obsessed with the usual source material (Star Wars, X-Files, etc.) Word to the wise: yeah, the alien is cute in the trailer, but for crying out loud, do not bring your small children to this movie unless you're prepared for the vocabulary questions.


Hey, speaking of movies, has anyone heard anything about reel_merlin doing another round? I am DYING to write an Adjustment Bureau/Merlin story right now.

Happy voting day to my fellow Americans! I hope you're all enjoying a sparkly civic glow from casting your ballots, no matter what your politics. My county has an ambulance fee question on the ballot this year, which also meant that there were a number of young and attractive fire and rescue crew out in the parking lot, politely offering me information about the issue. Bonus!

I left early this morning to get to my polling place, even though it's right next door to my apartments. In my workplace, having an "I Voted!" sticker is not just a display of civic pretentiousness--it's necessary armor if you plan on getting any work done. Otherwise, you have to explain to every. single. person you pass in the hallway or who walks by your office that yes, you are planning to vote, you're just going to go at lunchtime or on the way home, no, really, you'll be sure to leave plenty of time!

In the end, there was no line at all at my polling place (worrisome) so I was in and out in five minutes, having received my sticker from some very earnest (and very small) election workers. I got to work earlier than I have all week, though most of my coworkers are still trickling in with their stickers.

On the way to work, I indulged in my favorite election day tradition: listening to Arcadia's "Election Day." Here, you can listen to it, too! Yes, I know it doesn't actually have anything to do with elections. Shut up and look at how pretty Simon Le Bon was in 1985 and how poorly he lip syncs.

Today was a very nice day. This makes it a nice contrast to yesterday, which was a Giant Wallow of Overwhelming Life Dissatisfaction.

But today was peaceful and highly productive. I got up early and went over to Panera, where I sat with a big cup of coffee and my notebook. It took about 3/4 of the coffee before my brain gave in and focused, but I finally got Merlin and Arthur out the window and on their way.

Then I ran a gazillion errands, with musical interludes. At Whole Foods, they started playing The Reflex, compelling me to do a little SLB spin in the middle of the frozen veggie aisle. Then I went across the street to K-Mart, where they almost immediately started playing Is There Something I Should Know?

Duran Duran: crossing all demographics since 1978.

Then I drove home, singing along to Galileo on repeat with the windows down. You see, I just discovered that this is one of the rare songs that is actually in my extremely limited vocal range, so I couldn't help singing it over and over and over until it gave me a headache.

I guess when they come out with Rock Band: Indigo Girls, I'll be all set.

Then I came home and weeded my backyard. It's a small yard, but there are a hella lotta weeds in it. Some of them are like trees, or possibly semi-magical beanstalks. Every year I make a token effort at pulling them up, but they just grow back. I don't understand it. Everyone else in my apartment complex has little yards with plain, undisturbed gravel. I have the Enchanted Forest Annex.

I've finally gotten fed up enough to bring in chemical help, much though I wanted to avoid it. So once the yard was all mostly somewhat clear of weeds, I doused it with Weed B Gone. I got the giant container because I already know these weeds aren't going to go quietly.

And now I'm going to set a gazillion vids from VVC to download. And then I'm going to see if I can get Merlin and Arthur onto the Underground. That would make this day awesome.

For anyone having kind of a rough weekend, this cheered me up IMMENSELY. The Duranie folk on my flist have undoubtedly seen it already, but it's wacky fun for all!

Craig Ferguson and company cover Duran Duran's cover of White Lines --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYyy1VUFav0

I think it was the puppet chorus that finally sent me actually tumbling out of my chair. That man is one crazy motherfucker. I love it.

My tiny computer arrived this morning! Although I am at work, and indeed have much work to do, I have taken it out of its box and caressed it and plugged it in to charge. It's the first non-desktop I've ever bought, and it's right there under my desk being all tiny and cute.

Thanks to everyone for your wise advice in my last post. I ended up getting neither of the two netbooks I was looking at before. Best Buy wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for tax and shipping, so I went over to browse at Amazon and found something that would cost only a little more total, but would solve my conflict about the keyboard, HD space, and processor speed. For the curious, it's an Asus Eee PC 1000HA (1.6 GHz Intel ATOM N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM (but I'm upgrading to 2 GB tonight), 160 GB Hard Drive). Pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

Now I just have to name it.

***
Can I just say, of all the Duran Duran members past, present, and future to show up on Twitter? It just figures that it would be Andy freakin' Taylor.

***
Just in time for the new computer, my Merlin big bang story is eating through my brain like acid. I just hope it lasts long enough to actually get written, instead of stalling out like the majority of my longer stories. This has gotten to the point of becoming a phobia now.

***
I can't bear to look at Starbuck anymore, so I made a couple of new "stuck at work" icons. This is the first one. It definitely evokes how I've been feeling at my job this week.

(x-posted from my soon-to-be-defunct DD journal, sorry those who have to see it twice)

So this past Tuesday was my second and last (*sob*) Duran Duran concert for this leg of the tour. It was at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, which is, in the local parlance, a suck-butt venue out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. It's actually closer to Baltimore than to DC, but as Simon kept talking about DC, I suppose this was as close as they could get. Shame that Wolf Trap probably had their summer schedule long finalized before the boys got around to booking venues.

Anyway. So chelseafrew, georgiednyc and I got to Merriweather a little before 8, figuring we had plenty of time to avoid Your Vegas (they're good, just *loud*). But while in line for merchandise, georgiednyc heard someone say that Your Vegas had already been and gone, and in fact Duran was due to start any time! A peek at the stage showed that this was almost certainly true. Needless to say, we skedaddled to our seats, which were down on the floor, waaaaaaaaaay over to the right. Technically, it was Row B, but set at such an angle that we were actually at the very back of the floor section and so far to the side that we were past the corner of Dom's end of the stage.

We had time to say hello to the nomadic stellarmeadow and syldath, who were informally upgrading their own crappy seats. Then georgiednyc helped me with the settings for my camera, which was enjoying its first serious concert outing (not counting Philly, where it ran out of batteries after a handful of pictures.)

Sadly, between the dark lighting, the angle, and my own fumbling skills (and inability not to dance), my pictures didn't come out particularly well. But I share them below, along with comments about the concert, because a few were cute, a few were blurry (but serviceable), and a few I just had smart-ass remarks about.

( It was a hot and muggy night... )

And then I ran out of batteries for my camera right before Rio. Thank God, I hear you cry!

All in all, it wasn't nearly as much fun as Philly, but it was still my boys and they sound more wonderful with every tour (even when it doesn't seem possible to improve any further).

Have fun, everyone in NYC tonight!

First, I received an absolutely marvelous Bourne story from winter_baby -- Three Dead Men and the Women Who Did Not Mourn Them.

I had given a rather vague prompt about wanting to see something exploring Nicky's relationship with Bourne, and winter_baby expanded it into a powerful look at all three of the important women in Bourne's life, and through them, at Bourne himself.  The characterization is perfect and the language recreates that certain harshness of the films.  Fantastic work, and you should all go check it out and leave her glowing comments.

On the writing end, I wound up having my most stressful and complicated Yuletide ever, although it was also a lot of fun (once I knew I wasn't going to have to change my name and move to Alaska).  See, when I was doing my sign up, I decided at the last second to offer The Family Stone, which is a wonderful movie I love and decided I wouldn't mind trying to write about.  All my other offers were the usual safe stuff, since I didn't want the kind of stress this year that I had last year (HA!).

Now, The Family Stone also happens to be one of the very favorite movies of my beloved best friend chelseafrew, mostly because her very favorite deaf actor has a pretty sizable role in it.  She requested it last year, and again this year, and this year she was the only one who did.  At some point it occurred to me that it would be REALLY REALLY STRESSFUL to write a Family Stone story for chelseafrew, particularly what with all the hiding and lying and stuff.

So I decided to change my sign up to take out The Family Stone.  And I was really, really sure that I had done just that. Except I hadn't.  I got my first assignment, and laughed at having chelseafrew as my recipient, already knowing that the first assignment was invalid, and assuming I had gotten an amusing mismatch.  I even told Chelsea about it, and we laughed and laughed.  Then I got my second assignment, and thought, WTF?  This is still wrong!  Only it wasn't, and that's about when I started freaking out.

I told our mutual friend stellarmeadow, and she had the bright idea of telling chelseafrew that I had gotten stellarmeadow as a recipient.  The logic was that Chelsea would assume I was writing a Duran Duran story for Stellar, and wouldn't want to see it, nor bother to seek it out on Christmas, being as Chelsea has no interest and a bit of antipathy toward the RPS of the Duran Duran variety.  Thus would I neatly evade the necessity for a decoy story.

Except that I made the mistake of agreeing that it wouldn't be very Yuletide-y to just write more of the same thing I write all year anyway.  And five minutes later, I found myself having agreed to write a story for Goal, which is a fantastic and immensely slashy soccer movie.  Chelsea even offered to come up with the idea and write half of it.  "But... but...," I wanted to whimper. "It's going to be hard enough writing a story for one friend, let alone two!!"

But the stories got done, and my lies were (mostly) successful, and by Christmas Eve I had even recovered enough to bang out a quick Duran Duran treat for patterns_rhyme.  That one was a fun challenge, since it was Nick/Simon rather than my OTP of John/Simon.

So the final Yuletide 2007 results came in as follows:

Main Story -- For Everything, The Family Stone

Decoy Story -- Switching Teams, Goal! The Dream Begins, co-written with chelseafrew

Yuletide Treat - The Promise, Duran Duran (Nick/Simon)


As a final trivia note, my Yuletide was a very small world this year.  My recipient was chelseafrew, whose recipient was winter_baby, whose recipient was me.  As well, I wrote a Duran treat story for patterns_rhyme, who wrote a Duran treat story for stellarmeadow, for whom I wrote my decoy story.  Next year I swear I'm branching out!