the stars like dust

But for now, since I can't post *good* writing, or even recs (although, just a side-note; if you love Bob Bryar and GSF, check out xanphibian's insanely funny MCR Bob-buster) I'm going to post horrible last lines.  (The SO and I made a list of heinous story enders, and so you lucky people get the last five.)

I'm going to be travelling around for the next four or five days, with only occasional net access, so if I need to reply to you or am not responding, that's what's happening. The SO and I are going to eat fudge and cinnamon toast and parent food, and also hopefully spread a little love around. It's been an amazing roller-coaster year in chez stungunbilly, and some of the happiest things have come from you folks on the flist.
Thanks, so much, for everything.
I hope you all have a really wonderful whatever-you-celebrate-or-don't, and happy slash/het/gen-ing to everybody. See you next week!

Since I posted something with only subtext, I'm going to post my comment shorts here.
Maybe one of these days I should actually post my SGA John/Ronon comment response in my own journal, too. Hmm.

Unrelatedly, here are pictures of Ryan Ross doing stuff that, frankly, looks fun to me, but also a little creepy. Kind of like me writing about him having sex, when I think about it. Thanks to ethrosdemon    for the link.

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I am dizzy with attachment to the latest bit of whimsy from the keyboard of impertinence. My heart is fuzzy and leaping with a sort of ridiculous exaltation, and hey, yours should be too! Gerard Way is a ghost hunter, and so is Mikey Way, and they suck at hunting, but with so much charm. Frank Iero is the vampire who saves them from themselves and less charming dangers as well, and I'm not even telling you the best part.
Go forth! Seize joy! Here.
But do read the warnings.

I have Wentz-Envy right now, and a bad case of it at that.
It's not the music nor the mansion nor the sweet tour bus nor the piles of money. It's not the access to BYTs and his own nightclub, it's not the email from Morissey or the adoring fans, either. No, what I want is shorter and less obtainable. I want a Patrick.
The reason isn't even x-rated. It's just, there are lines and paragraphs and fragments of plot all over my computer, but I have no Patrick to take them all and turn them into a haunting story for me, while I jump around and squee and make posts. It's not fair! Universe, fix this, stat.

I'm supposed to be creating a writing/scheduling wiki for the SO and I. Instead, I'm reading my email and sinsense's comment threads and thinking about bandboys and their filthy, filthy scenes. And, okay, so I just watched Release the Bats also, and am reflecting on NPR's interview with Pete. None of which are at all relevant to the motive for this post, which I will now explain.

Whether you are in bandom or not, I urge anyone who enjoys urban fantasy or fantastical urbanity to read "After" by sinsense. Here is part one, and here is part two of two. It really isn't necessary to know the bands to read, though it is all the richer if you do. She created a universe in which one can imagine a dozen tellable stories, and she did it with flair and skill. I'm going to try for a brief summary as follows:



Okay, so ignore my summary. But read her lovely story.

There are two separate posts on the flist linking to a recent interview with Victoria Asher and Alex Suarez of Cobra Starship. I hadn't actually pursued an education in the CS band yet, but obviously I'm going to have to do so. In the interview (much classier, IMHO, than most of the "professional" ones I've been watching lately), the interviewer asks about rumors. Alex proceeds to talk about fan fiction, wonder why the writers made him "the bitch", and gloat over stealing Ryan Ross from Pete Wentz (in a story! it's a good interview, but not that good!).
::flail-ly hands everywhere::

Find the (soon to be infamous) interview here. Thanks to raveninthewind and eleanor_lavish for the links.

::shifty eyes::
Pete? If you're reading this, I truly think you are a fascinating, clever, silly, funny, and beautiful man who does wacky and sometimes good and sometimes immoral things, just like the rest of us, but is basically just a dude. Now go write us a really canonical Pete/Patrick or  something.
::hides proto-stories::
Important point; in the few stories featuring CS I have read, more than half had the pairing Alex/Victoria. Hmm.

For the non-bandom folks who are curious: Cobra Starship is one of the bands on the FueledbyRamen record label. They have toured together with a number of the other bandom bands and are notoriously fan-friendly. Victoria Asher is also known as Vicky-T and plays the keytar. Alex Suarez is just Alex Suarez, but he does play the electric bass guitar.

The idea of a Hard Core Logo/My Chemical Romance crossover seems pretty inevitable. Spinning some ideas about one with rue_quercus, I of course had to go watch the movie again. This led to me rewinding and starting it over a second time, and also to poking about and reading an essay by rubberbutton on the acid trip scene. It's a great essay, which added to my sense of the movie, at least by certain lights.

I really like pairings. Sometimes, I fall for characters , other times ensembles push my happy buttons, once in a while it's a genre or a conceit or a special effect (swooshy ships!<3), but mostly I fall in love with the strange creatures formed by human unions. Like, I love the Firefly crew as a whole, and I'm crazy about grumpy-sweet Rodney McKay, and Sam Winchester makes me go *swoon*. I also crush on dragons and wishing rings and magic doors, but really? It's the interactions between the dragons and their humans or the Sam/Dean Beast or the way that I like Sheppard so much better when he's the kind of guy who falls helplessly in love with the most aggravating man on Atlantis that gets my blood up.

And I'm a vagabond, we all know this, right? So I have attachments in literally dozens of fandoms, and really hundreds of worlds, and once in a while some story I love or a plot or a team makes in onto my forever list, but when a pairing does, that's it. I support, in every way, the growth of variety and multiplicity in fan fiction (viva All Pairings, All Genres, enjoy the GSF with my blessings, seriously) but what makes me happiest is always going to be the epic that obsesses, as I do, on the pairings that I can't forget, can't give up, won't shut up about. 

I'm happy to say that bandom has added to that list. Yay!

Now, there's a long list of Pairings in Bandom that Interest Me. (PIBTIM).  In fact, here it is:

• Frank/Gerard, of COURSE. This one is moving up the list all the time. Frank's just so. And Gerard.
  
• Patrick/Gerard, because Warhammer, people.
• Ray/Mikey. They just. I dunno. I like the idea.
• Joe/his guitar. I'm not an Impala/Dean shipper, but I love the idea of Joe's guitar turning into a woman.
• Andy/His Ideals. Like, I want stories where he struggles over idealism vs. success.
• Jon/Spencer, because of the way they look at each other.
• Brendon/Patrick. Just. So much vocal talent in one place.
• Patrick/Frank. They're so *wee*. It's. Hmm.
• William/Travis. Hands on hips, I'm just saying.
  
• William/his wife, because there's this one picture where he looks at her like she hung the sun.
• Bob/an Awesome Nurse. I mean this, I love the idea.

There'll be others, but that's my current list of interest, except for a couple that have, essentially, leaped into the set-aside special category.
Frank/Gerard has come close, and I think it'll get there. But not yet. Those pairings are Ryan/Brendon and Pete/Patrick (which I really long to call Stupid Pet Tricks, but won't because I have mercy). It's just that, not merely in the bandom category, but in fandom in general, I'm going to be thinking about these guys as units. I don't rule OUT pairings or alternatives to my favorites, but these ones are the ones I love.

Ryan Ross just looks so *haughty* and *reserved* and then Brendon climbs him and squeals, and I cannot be expected to resist this. Especially when Ryan, who we fondly call George, just lets him.

And Pete Wentz is so lovable when he's with Patrick, who is one of nature's plushie creatures with a snarky side that enchants. And they made a band! Which is on top of the world!
 
How could I help but love?

I've been listening to the various bands of bandom, pretty heavy rotation, and most especially Fall Out Boy. I can fairly say that I've given their discography a good chance and I have had time to develop an opinion. Previous to diving into bandom, I'd had a few FOB songs on regular play, the obvious ones and "My Heart Is The Worst Kind of Weapon".  But now I've heard every song I could get my hands on, and most of them multiple times, minimum.

Things I've Learned about Fall Out Boy's Music, Including Things Not Fact But Complete Opinion and in Some Cases about Different Bands:

• Patrick Stump has that special magic of hook creation, reminiscent of another pop master, Paul McCartney. He's sustained it over the course of several albums, so I'm thinking he's going to keep it, though you never know.
• Andy Hurley's drumming is solid and heavy and very pleasing to me, in all of the albums.
  
• Joe Troh is not a shabby guitarist. He's actually pretty decent. Sometimes he's what I'm listening to in some of the songs I most enjoy, but especially on the earlier albums, where his style fits better.
• MCR does the whole theater thing better, IMHO; they have visual brilliance and do multi-media beautifully. But I like FOB's music much better. Though to be fair, I'm working on giving them the same full-discography listening space before making any sort of serious judgement.
  
• I understand Pete's enthusiasm for Patrick's voice. But I probably like it best in the tracks that set it against Pete's roar as a contrast. As beautiful as he can make it, I really like his early stuff best, with the hardcore sound influencing the sweet.
  
• Pete's lyrics are essential to the music. He's embarrassing and mean and sometimes just. I'm not a fan of revenge. But he does cut to the core of emotional metaphor at times. The lyrical roughness adds to the song, rather than detracting. And I often find random lyrics of his lingering in my mind in the good way.
  
• The band has a quality of pulling in too many directions on "Infinity on High". It feels like a band that's about to experience creative differences. I really hope that they, at most, take a break and then come back, or that I'm way off base. Because:
• Musically, and regardless of fannishness, I enjoy the band SO MUCH. I'm really glad that fandom led me to really listen to them, I haven't made such an enjoyable find since the Decemberists.
  
• I really think that, if they still share a vision after taking some space, these guys could have another ten albums in them. Maybe Pete will still be able to write when he's happy. I guess we will see.
  

and Some Things I've Learned about Fall Out Boy, about How Cute They Are:

• These kids fascinate me, all four of them. The fact is, they are positioned to be test cases for so many new things, and the way they go predicts mass movements in an uncertain landscape.
  
• I think Pete looks beautiful lately.
  
• Patrick has some weird power of being amazingly attractive that I don't really understand. It's not just the voice, because it's the pictures, sometimes.
  
• Joe makes me want to hang out with him, if hanging with celebrities was something I'd ever do, which it isn't. Except possibly Neil Gaiman. He talks about the kinds of animals I love, and loves Star Wars unabashedly. 
• Andy also seems like a really interesting person, worth the effort of serious discussion. I would love to talk anarchy with him.
• Here's my breakdown of the four of them, in band/theatrical terms:
• Pete Wentz: intensely verbal born communicator, addicted to the spotlight and drawn to attention of all kinds, and often battered by that which sustains him. Also really likes music.
  
• Patrick Stump: The Compleat Audio/Music/Sound Geek. Multiply talented instrumentally, all-around musical creator. Plus The Voice. Your basic siren. Leave him in a little room with the tunes, dude. He doesn't have to have the spotlight, for serious, he just needs the music.
• Joe Trohman: living the Rock 'n' Roll Dream. He's the normal guy who learned to shred and became a ROCKSTAR! He's in it for the fun and the tunes, the good bud and the chance to be paid to hang out with his friends in a great scene.
• Andy Hurley: Idealist, but also realistic. Loves music, but wants to use it to make the world a better place. Takes responsibility for his own choices, and therefore probably a very powerful person.

And that's all for tonight, folks.

ETA: Next up, My Chemical Romance.