ldhenson: (hector)
Whew. Four-day cons? Too short.

But so, so much fun.

Got to see POTC and ROTK again with small groups of fellow fans. Because you can watch something a million times over in the privacy of your own home, but nothing compares to watching it with a bunch who enjoys it as much as you.

Didn't come home with a zine this year. I haven't had the budget to buy these last few times, but between trib copies and presents I usually come away with at least one. OTOH...my reading backlog is still ginormous.

Between my friends (who aren't in this fandom but either bought stuff to surprise me, or pointed out stuff I couldn't resist) and I, we apparently cleaned out the con's meager store of OUATIM merchandise. And I'm not a merchandise-buying girl. But I think I was the only OUATIM fan there, and I couldn't just leave the pretty merchandise sitting neglected now could I?

* * *


Also: Discovered Mexico and Mariachis, which I hadn't listened to in a while, makes excellent travel music. "Cancion" is as great as ever, "Alacran y Pistolero" is beautiful, and "Torquay" is an instant shot in the arm. In fact, "Torquay" on repeated loop could've probably sustained me through the whole trip.
ldhenson: (visual_impact)
Icons up for adoption, because Johnny, Antonio, guh.

Take, credit, enjoy.


1a. 2a. 3a.

1b. 2b.
ldhenson: (spanish_eyes)
Ah, gawwd...I have no real reason to post this.

Just wanted to break in my new icon.

Antonio makes my icon pretty.

Yes, he does.

::slinks away::

::slinks back::

Antonio pretty...

::slinks away::
ldhenson: (bang)
Finally got a decent graphics program so hopefully this will be the last revision of the bang! icon, which I must have done over about 5 times. It's one of my very favorite shots of El, and deserves to be seen with proper resolution.
ldhenson: (bang)
Finally got a decent graphics program so hopefully this will be the last revision of the bang! icon, which I must have done over about 5 times. It's one of my very favorite shots of El, and deserves to be seen with proper resolution.
ldhenson: (bang)
::hugs [livejournal.com profile] guede_mazaka::

Well, I'm all giddy now. I mean it. And the remaining dozen icons will really be your doing.

Standing offer for free icons for you, dear, when and if you want.
ldhenson: (bang)
::hugs [livejournal.com profile] guede_mazaka::

Well, I'm all giddy now. I mean it. And the remaining dozen icons will really be your doing.

Standing offer for free icons for you, dear, when and if you want.
ldhenson: (Default)
One week today, and things are holding up.

Taught myself how to make screencaps and animated gifs. Have been playing with icons in lieu of writing. They're small and ergo seem harmless. I'm taking it to mean my creativity hasn't been completely stoppered up by RL.

I'm taking it as a good sign.
ldhenson: (Default)
One week today, and things are holding up.

Taught myself how to make screencaps and animated gifs. Have been playing with icons in lieu of writing. They're small and ergo seem harmless. I'm taking it to mean my creativity hasn't been completely stoppered up by RL.

I'm taking it as a good sign.
ldhenson: (Default)
Things cheering me up today:

1. [livejournal.com profile] guede_mazaka's fic "The Diddler". It's clever, it's engrossing, it's heavy on the Poe-referencing. She lost an hour of sleep for it, but I'm only half-sorry as it's such a lovely gift. Besides, she wound up getting an A.

2. Robert Rodriguez's new CD Mexico and Mariachis, which is playing as I type. I loved the melody of "Malguena Salerosa" the first time I heard it in the movie, and was a bit disappointed to find it wasn't on the soundtrack. Well, now I have it at last, a new rock version by Rodriguez's own band. And the OUATIM title theme, another sadly-missing-from-the-soundtrack piece. In fact, the only repeat track on this is "Cancion del Mariachi," the inclusion of which, as it's a great song and is (according to the liner notes) discussed on the DVD, I can quite forgive. There's fantastic art in the notes as well, even if Carolina has to suffer the indignity of having staples in her.
ldhenson: (Default)
A smooch to [livejournal.com profile] guede_mazaka for her lovely drabble "Mark of the Beast", which not only is in my favorite series of hers, the emotional-rollercoaster run-don't-walk "Restraint," but is also a follow-up to one of my favorite scenes.

* * *


Practically worth the price of the DVD: Robert Rodriguez takes us into his kitchen, and Salma Hayek cracks up while playing dead. And the 10-Minute Flick School. Incredible.

Also want to say...whew. I got the thing about the divisa right in PdT after all. Was somewhat worried that the darkened video of my VCD was leading me to miss it, but the bright shiny DVD shows the same. The bull's not wearing one. It is wearing one in one of the featurettes, but only in the earlier stages and certainly not by the time the matador engages it.

Support for the metaphor! Always a welcome find.
ldhenson: (Default)
Okay, this probably qualifies me for the Most Unnecessarily Nitpicky Award:

If you have the "Desperado"/OUATIM collector's box set, take a look at the back of the outer box. There are some errors in the details given for "Desperado." Specifically, the copyright date, audio options, subtitles, original audio, and run time listed are all wrong for "Desperado"; they actually belong to "El Mariachi."

Ahem. What are y'all starting at me like that for...?
ldhenson: (Default)
Okay, this probably qualifies me for the Most Unnecessarily Nitpicky Award:

If you have the "Desperado"/OUATIM collector's box set, take a look at the back of the outer box. There are some errors in the details given for "Desperado." Specifically, the copyright date, audio options, subtitles, original audio, and run time listed are all wrong for "Desperado"; they actually belong to "El Mariachi."

Ahem. What are y'all starting at me like that for...?
ldhenson: (Default)
Three stories in three months. I don't think I ever achieved that rate, even back in the early years when I wrote what was, for me, fairly often.

Granted, they're getting shorter and shorter. "Plaza de Toros" is something like 500+ words and took less than 24 hours to do, from conception to post, including research and a lot of VCD-viewing ('cause I'm just compulsive like that). Probably no big deal for a lot of writers, but something of a personal record for me.

I just don't write easily. Every line I've written gets re-read about fifty times over in the course of composition, which means I really, really have to like the line or it won't make it to the final draft. (It doesn't mean, though, that I catch every single typo. I didn't run PdT through spellcheck. I don't need no steenkin' spellcheck for a measly 500+ words, I thought. And yet, shortly after posting I realized I'd misspelled "tobacco." )

In related news, after squinting at the bullfight scene (and the bullfight scene, and the bullfight scene) on my darkened OUATIM VCD, I finally up and bought the real thing in person, because my ordered copy's just going to take too long to get here. And I haven't even watched everything on the POTC DVD yet. Or the TTT:SE. Or the FOTR:SE. Or even cracked the plastic wrap on the "Desperado"...
ldhenson: (Default)
Three stories in three months. I don't think I ever achieved that rate, even back in the early years when I wrote what was, for me, fairly often.

Granted, they're getting shorter and shorter. "Plaza de Toros" is something like 500+ words and took less than 24 hours to do, from conception to post, including research and a lot of VCD-viewing ('cause I'm just compulsive like that). Probably no big deal for a lot of writers, but something of a personal record for me.

I just don't write easily. Every line I've written gets re-read about fifty times over in the course of composition, which means I really, really have to like the line or it won't make it to the final draft. (It doesn't mean, though, that I catch every single typo. I didn't run PdT through spellcheck. I don't need no steenkin' spellcheck for a measly 500+ words, I thought. And yet, shortly after posting I realized I'd misspelled "tobacco." )

In related news, after squinting at the bullfight scene (and the bullfight scene, and the bullfight scene) on my darkened OUATIM VCD, I finally up and bought the real thing in person, because my ordered copy's just going to take too long to get here. And I haven't even watched everything on the POTC DVD yet. Or the TTT:SE. Or the FOTR:SE. Or even cracked the plastic wrap on the "Desperado"...
ldhenson: (Default)
...when you're FF'ing through something you taped, on your VCR with its superfast FF, and you recognize an OUATIM DVD commercial not by any actual visuals (which consist entirely of lightning-quick clips from the movie that at FF speed flash by in the blink of an eye), but by the commercial's color scheme.

In other words, I saw a 3-second blur of red and orange and black and white and said to myself, that there sure looked like OUATIM...

...which, when I stopped and went back and played it at normal speed, it was.

Huh.
ldhenson: (Default)
So I've had this episode of SNL on tape sitting around for months, maybe a year, right? And I never really watched it, but never got around to erasing it, either. Until finally the other day I said, I'm running out of space, let's get rid of it.

So I FF'd through it, trying to find the end. I hit Play a minute too early, and lo and behold it was a "Philadelphia" spoof. To wit, a commercial with "Philadelphia" action figures.

It's high-larious.

And to think I'd almost wiped it.

Did nearly the same thing a few weeks ago with an episode of "Urban Latino." I'd accidentally taped the show, but when randomly FF'ing through it I came across an interesting segment on a woman who turns gourds into painted skulls for el Dia de los Muertos. So I kept it. Over the next few weeks, I glanced back at that segment a few more times.

Only to find out one day that if I'd bothered to rewind about 15 seconds earlier, I would have seen a rather cool segment on Latinos in Hollywood. Not surprisingly, Antonio Banderas was featured, plus Salma Hayek and Robert Rodriguez and some nice clips from OUATIM.

Suppose I should actually watch the things I tape...
ldhenson: (Default)
So I've had this episode of SNL on tape sitting around for months, maybe a year, right? And I never really watched it, but never got around to erasing it, either. Until finally the other day I said, I'm running out of space, let's get rid of it.

So I FF'd through it, trying to find the end. I hit Play a minute too early, and lo and behold it was a "Philadelphia" spoof. To wit, a commercial with "Philadelphia" action figures.

It's high-larious.

And to think I'd almost wiped it.

Did nearly the same thing a few weeks ago with an episode of "Urban Latino." I'd accidentally taped the show, but when randomly FF'ing through it I came across an interesting segment on a woman who turns gourds into painted skulls for el Dia de los Muertos. So I kept it. Over the next few weeks, I glanced back at that segment a few more times.

Only to find out one day that if I'd bothered to rewind about 15 seconds earlier, I would have seen a rather cool segment on Latinos in Hollywood. Not surprisingly, Antonio Banderas was featured, plus Salma Hayek and Robert Rodriguez and some nice clips from OUATIM.

Suppose I should actually watch the things I tape...
ldhenson: (Default)
So my car, she don't have a CD player, right? Just a cassette. Thus if I buy a CD, I have to transfer it to tape if I want to listen to it in my car.

So I start with the OUATIM soundtrack. Not bad; takes up a side and a bit more. I see, just for kicks, if I can fit the POTC soundtrack to the remaining tape. Guess what? A perfect fit, plus maybe 10 seconds free.

What luck, right?

Next up, soundtrack to "Evita." I don't want everything. Just the bits, mostly, where Banderas' Che sings (which means I'll cut a song short if necessary, or pick up just one or two lines--a result that bugs most people, which is why I won't play certain tapes when I have passengers), plus a few other songs I just like. It's an utterly irregular jumble of whole tracks and snippets of music.

Then I get the soundtrack to "Desperado." What better B-side, I'm thinking, only chances are it won't fit, even minus the 2 tracks I'm planning to leave out. That's okay, I suppose; I'll just put the leftover tracks on a third tape.

But no. Another perfect fit, plus maybe 15 seconds free.

Had I chosen just one more snippet of music from "Evita," or picked slightly longer ones, it wouldn't have worked.

'S a little creepy...

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