I’m a fangirl. Anyone who has known me long must know this fact about me. I love my favorite media quite violently. As it turns out, I’m also a fangirl of fellow fangirls. LolaWaldorf makes my all-time favorite fanvideos because:
a) They are never common.
b) They are always intelligent and are saying something much bigger than just the surface.
c) They are surprising, beautifully edited, and always, always, always hers. You can detect a Lola vid just by her vidding style alone.
d) They take me out of the words in my head and just fill me with feeling. I can’t even really talk about the vids. They just stand entirely on their own.
My top five favorite vids of hers.
1) Glee: Kurt – My love’s too big for you my love.
2) This multifandom piece of brilliance that makes me just flail. Incorporating pieces of other fanvids made to the same song, it’s Florence as the fangirl/boy being devastated by media.
3) Borgias: I walked because you walked
4) Supernatural: Vesuvius – My ALL-TIME favorite video. No one but Lola would’ve made something this brilliant.
5) Sherlock: Rococo – They seem wild but they are so deep.
Festivids is an annual fanvidding festival which always delivers a variety of fun, thought provoking, entertaining, intense, emotional vids. Today I’d like to highlight my favorite one of the year. This multifandom feat by Anonymous. (Names are revealed later in the process after everyone has the chance to view the vids without preconceived notions based on past associations with the vidders.)
This particular vid is multifandom and, more importantly, meta–which are always my favorite kind of vids. In this case, Florence is a representational stand-in for fans, and that is used to great effect to show the power that good storytelling via movies and television can drive fans into frenzies of emotion.
I think it is absolutely work the small difficulties of having to click through to the link–here have it again–and type in the password to view. It’s absolutely lovely and features a wide variety of shows and movies.
Here is a link to the book on Goodreads, should you wish to add it to any of your shelves there, or maybe, possibly leave a review that says something nice about it. If you read it and hate it, you can also leave a review saying something not nice, I guess, and…well…fine. Be that way. 😛
I’ve mentioned before that I am often inspired by music. In the case of this tale, there were several songs that took root in my mind and which became the basis of inspiration for this book. Because I’m feeling self-indulgent, I thought I’d share three of them.
Never Let Me Go by Florence + the Machine
Astronauts by One Eskimo
All This and Heaven Too by Florence + the Machine
And, lastly, because this is my first book, I wanted to thank some people specifically and this seems like as good a place and time as any. Thank you to:
Keira — for co-writing this with me, and for being a steady support in all ways. Jed — for being my best friend, for buying me the copy of The Light Princess years ago now, for supporting me always in everything, for being my sounding board, my beta reader, my one in a million. Husband — for being a good man, a loving partner, and the best decision of my life, for being an amazing father, for making time for my writing, and for not caring one whit what I write about, so long as I feel fulfilled doing it. Daughter — for giving up mommy time so that I can write, and for being an inspiration simply by existing, breathing, smiling. JJ and Punny — for twelve years of support and friendship, for loving me unconditionally. Alice, Beth, and Aimee — for beta readings, hand-holding, friendship, and lots of emotional support. SIL — for helping with childcare, for being supportive beyond your call even when stressed to the gills yourself. MIL — for loving my kid enough that I trust her to you, freeing me up to do what I need and want to do with regards to writing. Any and all readers, past and present, of original works or fanfiction who offered me support, beta reading, friendship, kindness, criticism, and your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. So much love to all of you.
Leta Blake 