Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

So I've been thinking a lot about Mike Trevino lately, as evidenced partially by the long post I did on Tumblr this past week. He's figured a lot into some of my recent Ginger and Lou pieces. It's been very interesting developing Mike and Ginger's interaction throughout the past three years and actually getting them to a place where they actually like each other and are comfortable being around each other. They don't confide in each other and probably never will, but Ginger finally apologized to Mike for the shooting (whereas previously he had only apologized to Lou).

I've thought off and on for years that I should probably make a Mike plushie to go with my Ginger and Lou plushies, but sewing is such a pain that I've always put it off. I decided I should really do it, so I used a coupon on Friday to get another pre-stuffed doll at Jo-Ann's for half-off and am planning to start work on the plushie this week, since I have materials for ears, hair, and pants already here. I'm already trying to start by finding a good picture of 1970's Joe E. Tata that I can use as a guide in making the expression, which I practice many times on paper before actually applying to the plushie.

On that, I'm running into some trouble, as it seems like most of his 1970's characters don't have much to smile about. I can't use a more recent picture as a guide. And the only 1970's shots I've got of him, save one, are side views. I'm going to need to get out everything I have with him guest-starring and study it for possible shots. If I don't draw the expression from an actual picture of the person, it never looks as accurate.

I finally solved my Amazon problem by waiting for another gift card that was just about ready to come and then using all of that plus a little cash to get the complete Cannon boxset. I waffled a bit on whether to really do that, since I'd end up having to pay a little more cash than before and I'd been hesitant to add that much cash. But the price was right and Cannon is a show we love in general and not just when darlings guest-star, so it seemed like a very wise investment. I don't have a lot of episodes recorded compared to how many there actually were, and I don't know if the ones I have might be cut. Some of them look like they might be. Crystal encouraged me to get the boxset and last Saturday I finally did, with no regrets. It came yesterday and Mom was thrilled. We watched a couple of episodes, including Don Knight's and the second one with Joe E. Tata.

Joe had a pretty big part, unlike a lot of the times when I see him. He appeared to work for an old man who did a lot of crooked things but had never been caught at it. I say "appeared" because he really seemed to be so much more than just an assistant. They'd been together for years; Cannon mentioned a drug operation that both Joe's character and the old man were involved in eight years ago. He spoke as though they were more like equals or partners in the operation, although I admit that could have just been my interpretation. But there was much more as evidence; it seemed like they lived in the same house, either that or Joe's character Higgins was just over there all the time. And when the nutcase in the episode sets a bomb in the old man's car and he's seriously hurt, Higgins is extremely distraught. He goes to the hospital and is there for hours waiting to hear if he'll be alright. Of course, an assistant or other employee could be that devoted to their boss, but all in all, I got the vibe that maybe even if he technically was an assistant, the relationship was more like a surrogate son and father or extremely close friends. We actually never learn the old man's final fate, but I like to think that he did pull through since Higgins would be so sad if he didn't.

In thinking about it in the hours since, I determined that there are two basic criteria that need to be met, in general, if I'm going to be intrigued by antagonist characters to the point of wanting to write about them. #1, For them to show some indication of caring about someone, and/or #2, That there is some indication that redemption is possible.

Of the two, #2 is the more important reason for me. That could manifest in several ways, including reason #1, or by them doing something decent, or even just by the idea that they will be going to prison and maybe they can be rehabilitated. In this case, while #1 is definitely present, there didn't seem to be any indication that either Higgins or the old man would be or could be interested in changing the way they handled life, so despite being curious and interested in their interaction, I seriously doubt I would write about them.

In the past I somehow got so intrigued by Gin and Vodka that I ended up being willing to write about them performing their jobs as assassins, although the stories were more about them as characters than about what they were doing. But I am still appalled that I did that. That just isn't me. More recently, when writing about Ecks and Wye, I did have to touch on their canonical jobs a bit, but mostly the stories were about them running for their lives after canonically betraying the organization and trying to start over and go straight. I still had to write Wye as having some darker views than I am generally comfortable with writing, but I tried not to touch on that as much and I did have him finally determine, at least, that the organization with which he had been affiliated did do things worse than most governments.

Sometimes I don't intend to get intrigued by a character and I end up doing it anyway because of what I'm writing about them to flesh them out. That was what happened with both Sephiroths (especially KH Sephiroth) and Snakes Tolliver. It also happened with Baby Face Morales. I had honestly originally intended that he would be the dark foil and counterpart to Micky and nothing more. I wrote The Return of Baby Face Morales with that idea in mind and I did not have the character show any redeeming qualities at all, that I recall. But then when I wrote the sequel and had to have Baby Face work with the good guys and later when I wanted him and Tony to patch things up, I got myself intrigued by the idea of him being more of an anti-hero and also developing his interaction with Tony. That was how and why I ended up changing how I wrote for him and started diving into his past and trying to flesh out possibilities of what could have made him such an angry and dark person. Some of it probably went into sob story territory and I might not follow that exact backstory now. I seriously doubt that I'd write about him at all anymore, really, both since his and Tony's story is probably as a standstill and since he really is a dark character and not one I'm that comfortable writing for anymore. If I were to do anything with those characters again, it would probably be to finish that hanging story about them and the Monkees held captive by mad scientists, and/or to keep writing that crossover with Kolchak. Tony Ferano would be the main character in the latter. I toyed a little bit in my last burst of Monkees stories about Tony and whatever goodness he still has in him. If I were to write about him again, I might further that angle and have him finally break away from Baby Face and try to get his life back in some semblance of order again. Even though I'm probably not comfortable writing for Baby Face, I have to admit that I do still love Tony. Jimmy Murphy's portrayal of him was classic.

Of course, Ginger is really quite a dark character too, so it's possible that in the future I will also not want to write about him anymore, either. But in his case, there was that actual chemistry I sensed between him and Lou (which could have been chemistry between the actors) and that is really what set the whole intrigue off. The fact of that chemistry combined with their interaction in general just fascinated me for some reason and led to me being unable to stop writing about them. And in their case, they really are trying to go straight after their stint in prison (something Baby Face would likely never do), so it's not uncomfortable writing about them. So I really hope that I will never feel differently about that, especially now that I've learned some more information that might possibly put a different spin on the elephant in the room of the shooting. I went into that in detail on Tumblr. http://lucky-ladybugs-lovelies.tumblr.com. Of course, as I say there, I will never be fully satisfied on that, but this is the best I can do to handle it. And in my timeline, as I mentioned, Ginger finally has apologized for that.

Bottom line is, I usually really don't want to like or get intrigued by certain characters, but sometimes I do because of those criteria.

Occasionally, I suppose, I can also get fascinated by a character for one other reason: if it feels like they got a bum deal in canon. Dutch Ingram would fall in that category, because the idea that he committed a murder was just shoehorned in, said by Ken Swofford's highly questionable character, and there was no proof it was true. I still don't believe it is, and that is the basis of my Rockford fic featuring him. But if it weren't for feeling like he wasn't the murderer, I doubt I'd write about him. He isn't really the type of character I like either. I don't think just the fact of Christopher playing him would have made me want to write about him, since I don't want to write about every character played by a darling.

And I need to decide what to do about another Amazon gift card I got. There's no chance of any other one coming soon, so with their changed policies I'm thinking maybe I should get a few books with this one. I considered that recent set of Kolchak short stories, which I want to get since I know the author of one of the stories, but I keep hesitating on getting it since I don't know if any of the stories deal with Tony (Vincenzo now and not Ferano, heh) and his and Kolchak's intriguing relationship. I know that in general, the prose stories do not. That collection of 43 short stories I have only has one where Tony really gets to shine, so in a set of 14 stories, there's not much chance Tony will have good screentime. The comics are better than the prose at giving Tony stuff to do, but I don't know if there are any graphic novels out that give him a lot of "screentime" since there are also some comics where he doesn't appear much. If I knew of any I don't have with good Tony content, I would jump to get them.

Other possibilities are Miles Edgeworth manga or Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books or some combination of several things. There are also a couple of new Pony/Equestria Girls books I want, an artbook for the series and a new Equestria Girls novel that will be out a week from ... Monday, I think. I almost always ponder for ages on what to spend gift cards on, since it's a treat I only have several times a year and I want to make sure I get what I really want and what will be meaningful for years to come. Hopefully I'll come to a decision this week.

Recently I saw this quiz turn up on Tumblr. It looked familiar and I thought I remembered randomly taking it the last time it popped up. I finally found that. Apparently I never posted it anywhere. I don't post quizzes on Tumblr and I couldn't find it here. So I touched it up a bit and here you go.

A:Your current OTP. Rumbelle (at least up through season 3A) and Duke/Serenity. Also, I still love Seto/Tea.
B:A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind. Seto/Tea. I used to scoff at it, and then when talking to someone about how unlikely it seemed, I got the urge to see if it could work after all.
C:A pairing you wish you shipped, but just can't. Yugi/Tea. I feel so guilty to not be able to ship it, when Yugi has such a big crush on her, but I just can't. It's Seto/Tea all the way for me.
D:What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom? Oh gosh, I don't know. My Gomer Pyle website, maybe? I think that came even before my All Dogs Go to Heaven website.
E:Have you added anything stupid/cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what? Too many things to name them all. Silly fics about Internet lingo and Sephiroth, Cloud, and Zack being confused.... Pictures of Lieutenant Anderson ordering from Pizza Hut....
F:What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? What fandom was it? The Monkees, probably. I'm still in it. I don't leave fandoms except in very rare cases. I do sometimes stop submitting new things for fandoms, though. I still occasionally write Monkees fics, but I haven't done anything for Gomer Pyle in years and years.
G:What was your first fandom? If by fandom we mean connecting with other fans, that would be Balto/All Dogs Go to Heaven.
H:Do you prefer real-life TV shows or animated TV shows? Depends on the show. I don't really actively prefer one over the other.
I:Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why? No.
J:Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr. Marvel Cinematic Universe. I still haven't seen any films in it other than Captain America, but the GIF sets I see floating around make me curious.
K:How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom(s). Basically, they're nice people. Every fandom has its screwballs, though.
L:Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for? ... Honestly, that would depend on what fandom they're my favorite in. I would adore for someone to draw me Ginger and Lou or Snakes art. I love drawing it myself, but it's even more fun when others join in. But if this is pairing specific, I would love fanart or fics for any of my favorite ships. Duke/Serenity could especially use more art.
M:A person who got you into a fandom and what fandom they pulled you in to. I'm usually the person pulling people into fandoms. And usually it's more than one person who gets me into a fandom, since it generally takes me a while to want to try something new when I'm busy with what I've got.
N:Your favorite fandom (for the people; not the thing you fangirl over). Good question.
O:Choose a song at random, what ship does it remind you of? Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen). It reminds me of Rumbelle. However, I usually associate it with Ginger and Lou friendship (or Ginger's life in specific) more than anything romantic.
P:Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas). Why does it have to be an AU idea? It's generally more fun to just write in the canon-established verse, unless said canon-established verse has become a disaster and impossible to work with, like Once Upon a Time is now. I have an AU for Once that picks up at season 3B and has Belle save Rumpel a la Beauty and the Beast. It then continues from there with slice-of-life stuff and Neal still very much alive. Maybe one of these days I'll actually write something more for it.
Q:A ship you’ve abandoned and why. When I think something works, I don't tend to abandon it even if I stop being involved in fanworks for it.
R:A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships. ::shrug.:: .... Peter Howard/Nancy Drew, from The Ghostwriter's Cruise episode of the 1970s show. They could have had a lot of fun interaction, if given the chance. And May-December romance for the win. The 1970s Nancy Drew series seemed to be in favor of such things more than once (although nothing ever got serious in any of the cases).
S:What's a headcanon you have? ... For what? I have dozens and dozens of headcanons for many shows. They don't often involve romance, though. Let's see.... I decided to write Lieutenant Schrank from West Side Story as having been married, but then divorced. It wasn't a friendly divorce. Mr. Wye from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. had a similar fate. I believe those are the only canonically single characters I've chosen to portray as having been married before.
T:What are your favorite male/male ships or female/female ships? Don't have any. I absolutely adore platonic life partners, though. Ginger and Lou from The Rockford Files would be in that category.
U:What are your favorite male/female ships? Rumbelle, Duke/Serenity, Seto/Tea, Nephrite/Naru.
V:Do you have any 3-way ships? If so, what? No.
W:5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms. Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold, Duke Devlin, Oscar Goldman, Hamilton Burger, The Virginian
X:3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms. Rumbelle, Duke/Serenity, Nephrite/Naru
Y:A fandom you’re in but have no ships from. The great majority of them. It's rare when I do have a ship.
Z:What's a ship that you want to ship publicly, but everyone on tumblr hates it so you keep your mouth shut about it? I dunno.

So Netflix has a disc that I thought had the pilot episode of The Rookies on it, because Darren is listed in their cast for the disc and he's in the pilot episode of The Rookies.

Well, the disc didn't have that; it's just the first episode of the series proper, which does not have Darren. And Darren wasn't in any of the other things on the disc, either. Bah.

It was kind of an interesting disc, though. It had the first episodes of five different detective shows of the 1970s. We watched all of them except The Rookies episode, ironically enough. It sounded rather blah compared to the others. Teen gangs, one of my least favorite topics ever. Ugh, I just can't stand seeing obnoxious, disrespectful kids trying to act like adults and fighting with each other over the dumbest things, like pieces of sidewalk. I totally get Lieutenant Schrank's frustrations with the gangs in West Side Story. No, he didn't handle things very well, but after so many years of trying and failing, he must have really been at his wit's end.

Anyway, the disc. Maybe we'll watch The Rookies one, but I'm not sure. When Darren's not in it, and no one else is in it whom I particularly like, and the plot sounds blah, it doesn't seem very appealing.

We watched the Starsky and Hutch episode. I'm always curious about that show because I hear how close the main characters are, but I ... really didn't see much of that in the first episode. The one guy, Hutch, really acted like a jerk at one point, even dumping Starsky's hot dog because he didn't like the idea of everything Starsky was putting on it. LAME! He tried to use the excuse that Starsky couldn't eat it while he was driving, but gosh, they could have taken it along and he could have eaten it when they stopped. Ugh, and in addition to how just plain jerky that was, I can't stand seeing perfectly good food get wasted. It's an extreme pet peeve of mine. I can't bear to watch that scene in the first Monkees episode where Davy and Theodore Marcuse are fighting on the table and ruining the food. The scene is really hilarious other than that, but ugggh, noooo, the fooood!

I suppose there are much better scenes between Starsky and Hutch in later episodes. The first episodes are rarely the best judge of character relations. But it certainly wasn't very flattering for one of my first ventures into the series. (First venture was the episode where their insane friend is hiring out as an assassin because he likes killing and he kills poor Luke Andreas in a phone booth. Nooo, Lukey! **hugs him!** And then I also saw part of another episode because someone got the numbers mixed up and I started out with the wrong one instead of the one with Luke.)

I haven't really liked the show any of the times I've tried it. I don't mind a little humor in cop shows; Adam-12 and CHiPs are adorably hilarious sometimes. But I don't like when the main characters seem to have so much trouble being serious. That's also why I didn't cotton to Alias Smith and Jones, but adore Maverick. Smith and Jones are so happy-go-lucky in addition to the show being silly, and that tends to irritate me. But on Maverick, the main characters are really the straight men, trying to deal with all the weirdness around them. There's a definite difference.

I enjoyed the Police Woman, S.W.A.T., and Charlie's Angels episodes on the disc quite a bit. I've seen some of all of them before and have always pretty much liked what I saw. Charlie's Angels is so cheesy, but gosh, it's fun. I love good old clean 1970s cheese. And David Doyle is kind of cute in a Simon Oakland-ish way. :) I already liked him from The Patty Duke Show, and I think I may be becoming downright fond of him. Must see more of this wonderful cheesy show.

So I occasionally watch The Time Tunnel on Hulu (usually if someone's guesting whom I love or if the episode sounds particularly intriguing). This past week I got a Time Tunnel disc out from Netflix to share the Chrissy episode and screencap it (301 pics, squeeee), as well as to do the same with the Wesley episode on the other side of the disc. Mom decided she liked the show and we watched the other episodes too.

Seriously, Tony kind of irritated me in both of the other two. First he gets amnesia and ends up causing a lot of grief for Doug. And the thing is "resolved" with probably the lamest thing ever, as Tony suddenly recovers during a fight with Doug (probably just because he hit his head or something) and doesn't seem to remember anything about having amnesia. Naturally Doug wouldn't want to tell him, probably feeling it better than he forgot. But still, dang, I wanted him to remember and feel bad for what he put Doug through. It's so lame to just have him forget everything. A lot of times the show could expand on intriguing angles, but they don't because each episode is self-contained.

Of course, since Tony doesn't remember in most of that episode, it can't be held against him for the way he treated Doug. Mostly what exasperates me is the way the writers chose to end the matter.

And then the very next episode has them having another rift, this time because Tony falls in love with Kubla Khan's daughter in 1287 A.D. Doug knows it just won't work, especially since they're from other time periods, but Tony just gets mad when Doug tries, calmly and rationally, to talk to him about it. They repeatedly have trouble over it.

I do love that eventually Tony comes around and acts mature about the whole thing. I have to give him credit for that. But honestly, I get so tired of the rifts a girl can create in friendships (even when she's not trying to). Just once I would really like to see a friendship where the person falling in love thinks about his friend as well as the girl. That aggravation is why I have Lou say in some of my fics that he won't marry someone unless she and Ginger can get along and she can accept that Ginger will be around.

One of my least favorite Monkees episodes is The Monkees Get Out More Dirt, since they're all behaving their worst and betraying each other at every turn to get the girl. I like it better in its uncut form, but I don't think it will ever be a favorite (even though the opening laundromat scene will forever be classic).

Admittedly, I'm a little curious to write a fic where a woman starts to strain Lou and Ginger's bond, but I'd want it shown that she wouldn't get far at all and they would realize what was happening. If they argued at all, it would probably just be once and never get that heated. I've written some heated arguments between them before, but those were never over a girl and I don't really want to see that happen.

And back to Doug and Tony, so far it seems like Doug is usually the better friend. I'm hoping there's at least one episode where Doug is in trouble and Tony really shows that he can be a good friend, too. I'm thinking of trying the episode Invasion, where Doug is brainwashed to kill Tony. Yikes. That could either be very promising and intense and have friendship squee, or it could fall flat.

Finally, at long last, the season 6 set of The Virginian came down in price again and it was at a point when I could get it. It arrived this past day and I skimmed through the episode with H.M. Wynant.

Apparently he plays a hired gun for the main bad guy and follows The Virginian for a lot of the episode. The Virginian tries to be friendly to him, and it softens his heart. At the climax, when he's ordered to kill The Virginian, he refuses.

I can hardly wait to see the episode in full.

This means that every one of my special people guesting in season 6 (Darren, Wesley, and H.M.) played wonderful characters who thrill me. And both of Simon's episodes (in seasons 3 and 4) are glorious, too.

This show is just awesome. It's totally one of the best series, and the best Westerns, ever made. I know I can turn to it for serious and intense plots, well-rounded characters, good moral points, and philosophical stuff, the same reasons I love Route 66.

I just can't understand how a show as silly and stupid as Laredo spun off of The Virginian. There's no real depth to Laredo. A friend of mine actually described it as being like The Monkees in a Western. LOL. (And he was being positive, by the way.) I never thought of it that way, and it's possible that looking at it like that could help me like it better, but I'm not sure. I just don't seem to like my Westerns silly (with the exception of The Marx Brothers' movie Go West). I still haven't got around to watching any of the silly Bonanza episodes, for that reason.

I've heard that the final season of The Virginian (long after Laredo) revamped the show and made things more light-hearted. If that's true, it's a tragedy. Blech. That would ruin everything.

Also, regarding my WWW fic, I'm wondering how far ahead I can believably take the events by the climax. I need a timeskip, but it would only be for a few days/a couple of weeks, probably. Then I might have another a bit later, but probably the most I'd do would be to move ahead a few more weeks. And I might not do the second timeskip at all, but keep the story events moving "in real time" from day to day following the first timeskip. All in all, I'm wondering if that's enough time for Ray and Coley to become believably close that Ray completely breaks down upon Coley's death.

It would probably be more believable with them than with some others, since I've tried to establish that Ray is definitely not fully healed from the emotional and mental torture he went through for two years, and Coley is the first person Ray has really become close to. They've been talking extensively throughout the chapters and have been gradually growing closer. Coley decides to protect Ray more out of wanting to return the favor at first, and because he's angry at the way Ray is being treated, but it doesn't take long for him to start caring about Ray as a friend. And Ray starts thinking of Coley as a friend before that point.

And also, I think I'm in love with the series I Spy. Just like with WWW, where you can see Robert Conrad and Ross Martin's real-life friendship coming through the characters, I could see Robert Culp and Bill Cosby's real-life friendship coming through on I Spy, right from the first episode I watched. Which makes me think all the more that I'm right about there not being much rapport between Napolean Solo and Illya on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., since I just can't sense that closeness after quite a few episodes. Maybe the characters are supposed to be close but their actors are not, and they had a hard time fully masking that. Hmmm.

I have some thoughts on the recent My Little Pony series, but I'll post that later. Today it's this.

First off! What is your pen name?
Lucky_Ladybug

Any previous pen names?
I don't think a pen name should be changed. Once it/you are established, you're known by that. Why change it and suddenly make it hard for people to find you/know it's you?

Of course, when it comes to various social networks and the like, I sometimes will use various names. But to post stories, I always prefer Lucky_Ladybug. And I include that as my LJ name too, so that people will hopefully know the insane one is me.

And what does your pen name mean?
It's the name of an old and silly but cute song covered by many people, but specifically Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons. It's pretty straightforward, isn't it? It's a ladybug who is lucky.

Any alternate nicknames or pen names?
insaneladybug, of course. Usually used on journals. And always with the "Lucky_Ladybug" attached where it gives the name of the poster.

What fandom(s) do you write for currently?
Perry Mason, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Monkees, West Side Story.

And what pairings do you write for it?
None, unless they're canon, such as Tony/Maria for West Side Story.

Why?
Why not? Not everything has to be about romance, after all. Try branching out more. Platonic/gen stuff is great, too. And there's a serious lack of it in many fandoms.

What are some current projects of yours?
The Case of the Spectral Stalker, my current Perry Mason mystery. (The one I'm still quibbling about. Now I'm concerned I may lose some of my audience if I do the happier, albeit crazier, ending. And yes, I know the author should be happy first and foremost, but I won't be happy if I lose my audience, either.)

Lullaby of Silence, my three-way crossover with Perry, The Monkees, and Kolchak.

And a Kolchak oneshot concerning a mysterious, healing cloth.

EDIT: And of course, To Blossom As the Rose, the FF7 crossover with the two Westerns. I haven't forgotten about it. I know what should happen next chapter; the problem is fitting it in amid all my other projects.

Do you ever think your OTP will reach a happy ending?
My current OTP ... Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold and Belle from Once Upon a Time ... yes, I certainly hope they will. The whole point is to bring back the happy endings, and they deserve one, too.

If you ever had to kill one of them off, who would you choose and why?
Why would I want to do that? Gah, they've been going through enough already.

... Although, I can't deny that I really hope that in the climax, Mr. Gold will be seriously injured stopping Regina/saving Belle, and then Belle will have to make like her animated counterpart and save his life with her true love.

Will your OTP ever have kids?
... That would be interesting, wouldn't it.

What do you see them doing post-canon?
I want them to stay in Storybrooke, as I've seen some post-canon stories portray. I think they have a better chance for happiness there than in fairytale land. Actually, it seems like that's the case for quite a few characters.

(Plus, I really really love Mr. Gold's character design and personality.)

If a character has multiple 'appearances', which one(s) do you use in fic?
The one I like best, baby. The question should really be, what if I like elements of multiple versions?

For Perry, I will always write about the classic TV series. No ifs, ands, or buts. The characterization is incredible and develops in ways it never did in other versions.

Sailor Moon is what I have a problem with. I think the good guys are better in the manga and the bad guys are better in the anime. The girls spend way too much time cooing over guys in the anime. And Rei is so mean, oh gosh. I've really come to love Sailor Jupiter and appreciate her awesomeness, but it's so annoying when she suddenly goes squeeing after yet another guy who reminds her of her old flame.

I just don't think I can bring my conflicting feelings on the different versions of Sailor Moon together, since it requires either abandoning one element or the other, or else smooshing everything together. I do the latter for YGO, but it's different since I really only like a couple of things better in the manga and can easily insert them into anime canon. For Sailor Moon, the problem is much broader and I just don't know how to deal with it. I don't think I will ever really be able to write for Sailor Moon because of it. I just can't decide how to unite what I like about the different verses. And since the fanfic category is pretty much dead anyway, I'd rather concentrate on current projects.

How do characters sound in your head?
Like they should. Perry is Raymond Burr's voice, Hamilton is William Talman's, etc. etc. (Unless I've been watching too much of something else and when I try to concentrate, someone else's voice is in my head, i.e., hearing Robert Carlyle's voice for Hamilton when I'm trying to channel William. Gah.)

Have you ever written/wanted to write crack fic (e.g. singing in a karaoke bar) for your fandoms?
No. Not unless everyone is in character. What's funny about it if it could be absolutely anyone? It's only funny if you can recognize the voices and personalities of the characters and you're watching them react to silly situations.

Davy Jones is dead, of a heart attack at 66.

That is way too young to die. I thought we'd have all the Monkees with us for a long time yet.

I'm in shock from the news, but as it's really sinking in I'm getting sad. I'll probably be crying later and watching Monkees episodes. I wonder if Antenna TV will do some kind of tribute with Davy episodes this weekend.

And eerily, I was listening to a Monkees song Davy sang lead on just as I was discovering the news.

EDIT: This Yahoo article wasn't the first I read, but I like it the best. The tributes by the other Monkees at the end are very poignant. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/monkees-singer-davy-jones-dies-180751406--abc-news.html I am very close to crying now.

On Dreamwidth.

http://insaneladybug.dreamwidth.org/560.html

I have made a new blog post. This one continues a previous discussion, but can stand on its own and is largely new information on the topic (dissection of Perry Mason's formulaic approach and what it meant for Hamilton Burger). http://parkavenuebeat.blogspot.com/

A few minutes ago (just as the clock was winding down on Saturday) I purchased another movie in which William Talman has a large role as a good guy: One Minute to Zero. I wasn't going to buy it until after I go out to the stores on Monday, but I changed my mind when I saw the price had been upped in the Amazon Marketplace. The price was still the same on the same store's eBay branch, so I decided I'd better buy it before they changed the price there, too. William's character, unfortunately, dies at the end, but I still want the film when he has such a large presence in it and is a good guy. Eventually I want to buy The Racket, too. I've seen it, though, and I haven't seen One Minute to Zero (albeit I know what it's about).

I really love having been born at this time of the year. Autumn is probably my favorite season, with the changing leaves, shorter days, and cooler temperatures. It's also time to start thinking about creepy things, with Halloween right around the corner. And my church's general conference, in which the leaders give inspirational talks on religious/spiritual subjects to the members, always falls right around my birthday. This year it was yesterday and will be today. And then my birthday is Monday, so for me it's like an extended weekend of awesomeness. There's a special feeling of anticipation and excitement in the air. As with Christmas, the anticipation is often times more fun than the actual arrival of the day, since that marks the end of it all.

I remember one October, I believe in 2000, when the whole month was especially neat. Some close relatives had given my brother and me some money that we divided between us. I had so much fun getting things throughout the month that I wanted, such as a book about The Beatles old cartoon series, a book on The Monkees, and a Beatles poster. I picked up some Monkees CDs, too. And some other things. I remember I bought The Beatles' album A Hard Day's Night for JP for his birthday that year. (It was either a belated gift or else I had the money some time before October.) Also, I think that was the same year I formatted a book for someone and I got money from that, too!

I always look forward to my birthday shopping spree. Sometimes, especially of late, they're more window-shopping than anything else. But it's still so much fun. I have some things in mind that I want to look up this time. Hopefully I'll be able to get at least a couple of them. And this year I'll want to get back in time for Perry; we've moved into season 5 on weekdays, it's awesome so far, and Mr. Burger is a regular cast member again. Good stuff.

As a random note: the opening for seasons 4/5 is one of the strongest memories I have from years earlier. That opening is, I think, the most epic and intriguing. I always thought so. But since Perry is the only character actually shown, my favorite theme is from seasons 2/3, with everyone present. Season 1's theme showed everyone too, but they superimposed the cast list on top of everyone so you couldn't see them. That was ridiculous. In seasons 2/3, the names are placed under every person, so they are easily identified and you can clearly see them.

I think I'll do a blog entry on the openings, maybe next week. I'm trying to get an entry up there at least once a week.

As a final note on the openings, it was in the latter third of season 3 when they altered it so Perry was the only character shown. They did that during that disaster with William Talman. What I don't quite understand is why they didn't put it back with everyone present after William was restored to his position. The only reason I can think of is that William's name still disappeared every time he was absent from an episode. Also, it was season 5 when they brought in Andy to lighten Ray Collins' load, and maybe him appearing less was another factor in keeping the openings the way they were, only showing Perry.

It's kind of sad that things never did fully go back to normal when William returned, since Ray Collins then was around less and less. One more reason why season 2 is just about my absolute favorite season. But season 6 is high on my list too. I have nothing against Andy, Ray Collins was still there sometimes in 6, and Perry and Mr. Burger are very obviously close friends by that point.

I have the first draft of the Kolchak/YGO crossover done. I may add some more things and tinker around with it before I put the other chapters up. I'm not sure if I think it needs to be longer or not. On the one hand, maybe, but on the other, I don't want to stretch it thin and I can't really think of much else that's necessary.

Yesterday morning I got to a scene I've been looking forward to ever since I decided what the twist should be. And I was supremely thrilled with the results. Sometimes scenes fall short of what I have in my mind, but this one met all my hopes and exceeded them! I am so anxious to share it. It's about the middle scene of chapter 6. Whatever complaints I may have about some of Moonstone's stories, I do think they're amazing at characterization and they do a fantastic job of portraying Kolchak's reactions to situations that really tried him as the TV show never did. My Kolchak in that scene of my fic is, I think, a lot like Moonstone's. Although I can't know for sure until I have that graphic novel to read all the way through. I've only seen some preview pages and read some summaries of part of it.

Other plunnies include a short oneshot involving the Chicago police force. It's interesting, how in several episodes it seems that deep down, they do believe Kolchak---they're just not going to let it get out. The Zombie episode is a prime example, and there were a few others.

And then either before I fell asleep or while I was asleep (i.e., dreaming) a weird scenario went through my mind of the aftermath of a situation where Kolchak was killed by one of the monsters. (He killed it too.) Tony was called by the police to come to the scene. It was really sad and heartbreaking!

Later on I started thinking and wondering if it should be a fic, probably with a near-death experience. I've been toying with the idea a bit since then. I envisioned the denizens of Hell out to get Kolchak because of how he's always out to stop any evil plans of theirs that he stumbles upon. The residents of Heaven, on the other hand, are trying to protect Kolchak and either get him there or send him back. (I always wished the Darkwing episode Dead Duck would have delved into that angle more. The devil didn't make a good case against Darkwing when he really could have, citing Darkwing's arrogance and vanity and love of fame.) I imagine the devil trying to make a case against Kolchak in the fic, citing how he's bent the law a bit to further his investigations into the weird mysteries. (Which on the one hand I can't say I condone, but on the other hand, no one's letting him get anywhere, so how else is he to do it? It is for the greater good, at least.)

... And ten to one, if I do it, the devil is going to be Mr. Zero.

Of course, by the end Kolchak is sent back, probably scaring poor Tony half out of his mind.