some things (that are mostly recs)

[lirazel]

First: some recs!

+ indiesnopp is writing the Fic I Didn’t Know I Always Wanted: Hyunsoo from Shut Up! Flower Boy Band meets a non-Infinite-member Lee Sungyeol. YES THAT’S RIGHT. EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED. And it is so good so far. So good. Hyunsoo is his prickly little secretly-vulnerable self (ANGRY PUPPY!) with Byunghee issues and anger problems, and Sungyeol is Sungyeol, and there is nothing about this I don’t love. Y’all should read it. It is here.

+ aerintine has written something else I didn’t know I always wanted, which is long Matt/Rebekah fic. It is perfect and wonderful and you should all read it. It is here. [Note: those of you on my flist who did TVD Big Bang: I still have your fics open in various tabs. I am definitely going to read them and give you feedback! Hopefully soon! Holidays are approaching, after all!)

+ theramble, who along with parkslady has been trying to win me over to the One Direction Side of the Force for, like, ever has written a 1D introduction post. WITH META. IN SECTIONS BECAUSE IT’S LONG. You people do understand how much I love meta, especially, apparently, real people meta. I am just so myself: constant obsession with narrative structure and imposing it on the real world even though people resist that sort of thing. Whatever. This post is DELIGHTFUL. And it is here.

+ Also I am reccing myself. I know probably most of you are sick and tired of hearing about my kpop problem, but y’all. But y’all. There is so much to love here. And I have put together a playlist of my favorite kpop videos, and I think even if the music isn’t to your liking or if you’re just sick of my fannishness, you might still be able to find some stuff you’re interested in. I’ve included little descriptions below, so you can skip around and find the ones you think you might like (DYSTOPIAN BADASSERY. QUEER KIDS IN LOVE WITH THEIR BFFS! BADASS LADIES DANCING! Whatever!). I hope some of you find some stuff you enjoy! It is here.

LADIES - videos by and about awesome ladies

•Ga In – Bloom: This video is a little NSFW, just a warning. And she meant it to be that way. Ga In is a member of the Brown Eyed Girls (more on them later), and when her fellow member Narsha released a video that got rated 19+ for being too sexy (they said HER DRIVING WAS TOO SEXY), Ga In decided to go after a 26+ rating because she felt like it. So this is a video about female sexuality. Yes it is. Yes, it is.
•miss A - Goodbye Baby: FAVORITE LADIES. My favorite girl group is fiercer and hotter than everyone and their dancing is fantastic but they’re also totally badasses. I’m still not sure what’s going on in this video, but it’s so fierce I don’t even care. LADIES.
•Wonder Girls - Tell Me: The Wonder Girls have a Wonder Woman video! Where precious Sohee is high school girl Wonder Woman saving the day left and right! What’s not to love?
•IU - Lost Child: This is my favorite IU song, and it’s also her debut song. It’s haunting and beautiful, and the video uses some cool mythological imagery that’s just the right kind of creepy.
•Brown Eyed Girls – Abracadabra: BADASSES. They are so underrated and so cool. This video is dark and wonderful and you’ll never forget the dance.
•2ne1 - Go Away: I’m not super into 2ne1, but I love their attitudes. This is a female revenge anthem (at least the video is) with some serious awesome. Some warnings for domestic violence, though, so maybe skip it if that might trigger you. But its ending is super cathartic.
•miss A - I Don’t Need a Man: FAVORITE LADIES AGAIN. Current video obsession. This is a song about how the ladies can be financially independent so they don’t need a man so they’re not going to put up with someone who isn’t going to treat them right. LOVE IT.

Interlude: SPIES!

•Trouble Maker – Trouble Maker: One of my all-time favorite music videos. Spy imagery and sexiness and just sheer over-the-top fun, plus a super catchy song.

GUYS - some favorites by guy groups

•Infinite - The Chaser: These are my babies, as you all know. This is their latest single, and the video is hilarious if you know the guys, but if you don’t, you can still be in awe of how perfect they are and enjoy Myungsoo’s ridiculous faces as he rolls in that car.
•Teen Top - To You: Teen Top has some precious members, but I’ll be honest: they have one perfect song and one perfect video and this is it. The choreo is GREAT and I love the attitude of the whole thing. (Also: Niel is in the bathtub. I do not know why he is in the bathtub, but I am endlessly entertained that he is.)
•SHINee - Love Like Oxygen: As fond as I am of certain members of SHINee and as much as I like some of their songs, I can’t watch many of their videos because they make me cringe. But this one is delightful (the fact that it’s one of their simplest probably has something to do with my affection for it) and the choreo is just so fun.
•exo-k - Mama: So the exo thing is a bit confusing: it’s one group, but it’s divided into two groups, one of which records the songs in Korean and the other in Chinese (also there’s something about aliens and superpowers and I just ignore all of that). This is Korean group’s version of their debut song, and even though I’m not really into them (yet), I kind of love this video and the song and how unrelenting it is. Badassery.

DANCE BREAK - videos where awesome dancing is the main draw

•miss A – Bad Girl, Good Girl: FAVORITES LADIES YET AGAIN. Dancing and being sassy and having no time for you trying to label them as either good girls or bad girls. They’re both and neither and they render all such dichotomies irrelevant. Gah, I just love them so much.
•Infinite - Be Mine: There’s actually a Be Mine video with other stuff going on, but I don’t ever watch it because the dance video is perfect. I seriously don’t know why Woollim actually pays money to shoot videos for these guys involving crashing cars and playing on the beach when they can just stick them in front of a blank wall and have them dance for 4 minutes and we’d all be just as happy.
•Wonder Girls - Like This: This video is so happy! Even if you’re sick of flash mobs, you’ll like this one—it’s laid back and fun.
•SS501 - Love Ya: I know zero about these guys. But I love the dancing in this!

DYSTOPIA -videos with dystopian themes (because you can’t have too much of that)

•Brown Eyed Girls - Sixth Sense: This video makes me want to start a revolution. Everything about it is perfect. For more information on the symbolism, go here. It’ll only make you appreciate this video more.
•Infinite - BTD: Never over this video. The choreography and styling is perfect, for one thing (every time I watch this choreography I love it a little bit more), and even though the storyline is confusing, the imagery of Woohyun and Myungsoo fighting each other and their captor is just amazing.

BFFS IN LOVE - videos about being in love with your bff (that are also linked by another thematic element)

•K.will - Please Don’t…: I initially just watched this because I love Seo In Guk’s face, and honestly that’s reason enough to check it out. Watch it to the end—you’ll be glad you did.
•Baby Soul + Yoo Jia (ft. Dongwoo) - She’s a Flirt: Whatever, these two girls are in love. And Dongwoo shows up in the middle for no good reason (not looking very much like himself, honestly) to rap. So there you go.

MOVIES - two-part videos that are more like mini films

•TVXQ (DBSK) - Before You Go: Changmin and Yunho and a pretty, badass lady are some sort of futuristic detectives and there’s guns and conspiracies and the guys looking gorgeous. At the end you’ll feel like you watched a movie.
•2PM - Tik Tok: YOON EUN HYE. I don’t need to say more.

HAPPY TIMES - songs and videos that just make me happy

•SNSD – Gee: This is the first kpop video I ever saw, long before I actually got into kpop. And it was the song that made Girl’s Generation the biggest kpop group in Korea. I’m very fond of the ladies, though I’m not so much into the group itself, but this video has to be on any kpop list.
•Ulala Session – Beautiful Night: Psy produced this, so it’s got his sense of humor and flamboyance but with 1000% less uncomfortableness than “Gangnam Style” since it hasn’t been stripped of meaning by Western fans. It’s ridiculous and so much fun.
•IU - Good Day: IU HAS A PARROT. A PARROT THAT SAYS—well, I’m not going to tell you what the parrot says because that’s half the joy of the video, but just watch. This video is so weird and makes no sense and I love it.
•SISTAR - Loving U: I don’t know much about SISTAR, but I know I want to live in this video with them. It’s happy and colorful and summery, and it’s about how they love each other, and it’s just lovely.
•Infinite - She’s Back (both the original Korean version and the Japanese one): If Loving U is about SISTAR loving each other, then She’s Back is about Infinite loving each other and having adorable times on beaches. The boys run around and are wonderful to look at (adorable babies in the first one and then adorable men who still sometimes act like kids in the second one) and the song is one of the poppiest pop songs to ever pop. Plus, it’s loads of fun to compare the two and see how much they’ve grown up.

NOT EXACTLY KPOP - their music isn’t exactly kpop but I had to include these videos

•Epik High – Run: Epik High is, like, THE mainstream hiphop group in Korea and Tablo is a genius. And okay, I picked this video because it stars Myungsoo and because if you pay attention you can see that the “band” is being portrayed by Sunggyu, Woohyun and Sungjong of Infinite, which I love more than is decent. But it’s also just a great video.
•Lunafly - How Nice Would It Be: LOVE THIS SONG. And the boys of Lunafly seem lovely. I’m really looking forward to whatever else they release.



+ Also, this is not a rec, but I’ve been writing het!porn (gender!swap) lately for the first time and I find that I actually find it more difficult to write than slash!porn. I think this is because I feel more pressure to get female sexual reactions right? Because I'm a woman. But the thing is: I have zero sexual experience (not even kissing), so writing about a woman having sex is just as foreign to me in one sense as writing about a guy having sex. And yet I feel like if I get the guy wrong, people will cut me more slack than if I write the lady wrong. Does that make sense at all? All I know is, I feel less confident writing het!porn than (dude)slash!porn. Perhaps this means I would feel twice the pressure if I were writing femslash!porn? Who konws?


+ Also-also: my family is going to Florida the week after my birthday AND I WILL BE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD. You people who haven’t been don’t understand, but it is possible to love Disney World as an adult even if you don’t care very much about Disney. The Magic Kingdom is fun and I don't much care about Animal Kingdom but EPCOT AND MGM, Y'ALL. I could live in those parks. I love them so so much. EPCOT is like a theme park for nerdy people: different countries and rides about science and everything is nerdy and nothing hurts. And MGM is all about the movies, from Star Wars to the Muppets, and I love it too. This will be my fourth time going, I think? And I get just as excited as I did when I was 10 and was getting ready to go for the first time. And so do my parents and little sister. We're all very excited.

And I will be going to Harry Potter World. Yes, you're jealous.

So anyway, that's the thing I'm majorly looking forward to at the moment. How are y'all? Life treating you well? Excited about upcoming holidays? What's going on with y'all?

Comments

[vergoldung.livejournal.com]

+ theramble, who along with parkslady has been trying to win me over to the One Direction Side of the Force for, like, ever has written a 1D introduction post. WITH META. IN SECTIONS BECAUSE IT’S LONG. You people do understand how much I love meta, especially, apparently, real people meta. I am just so myself: constant obsession with narrative structure and imposing it on the real world even though people resist that sort of thing. Whatever. This post is DELIGHTFUL. And it is here.
OH NO. NO NO NO. DON'T YOU DARE PULL ME INTO MORE MISERY. THAT IS NOT OKAY.


But yay for fun family times ahaid :D

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

THEY'RE SO CUTE, THOUGH. But yeah, you should probably run while you can!

Yay for family times indeed!

[vergoldung.livejournal.com]

I KNOW (which fml seriously). I already spent about ten hours tumblr gazing at them one night. To this day I still don't know how/why that happened, but the building feels were scary enough for me to run run run.

ALSO NOW THAT I'VE HAD TIME TO WATCH : WHAT IS THAT VID LIST!??!! SCREAMING. DELIGHT DOES NOT BEGIN TO COVER IT.

ALSO MORE IMPORTANTLY : AHHHHHHHHHHHH YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU HOW ARE YOU REAAAALLLLLL TELL ME I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW PLEASE LET ME CLING TO YOUR LEG FOREVER AND NOOOOOOOO WHY IS IT OVER I CANNOT DEAL WITH MY LIFE WITH IS IT OVER /CREYS /VOMITS /CREYS AGAIN

(Ahem. Gross commenting is in store.)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

HAHAHA YOU ARE THE CUTEST. :D

[infinitewish.livejournal.com]

Okay i am sorry but only thing remains in my mind-

OMG YOU ARE GOING TO HARRY POTTER LAND OMGOMGOMG CONGRATS BUT I AM SO JEALOUS MY DREAAAAMMMMM

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I will let you know if it's worthy of the Harry Potter name!

[theramble.livejournal.com]

This post is DELIGHTFUL.

RUDE!!! RUDE!!! (translation: you're unbelievably sweet to me?!!!? feelings????!!)

i'm going to check out all of these videos and it's going to be beautiful. good. (i've already seen gee and mama, which i loved, so.)

interesting thoughts on porn writing! i almost feel like for me writing kissing seems like the biggest challenge because there's no way to experience that without another person. WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE. while there are other things one can generally try on themselves to some extent. wow i'm going to be so embarrassed about this comment when i post it i have the biggest issues with how i want to talk about sex from personal perspective all the time but get embarrassed about it immediately. just talking about wanting to have sex with specific celebrities is a newly learned skill for me. but lol that's actually another thing. i feel embarrassed/exposed at the idea of writing about what i like personally or in my porn because then like, everyone's going to know!!!11 hahaha i don't know. (and then there is the technical side of things aka google is my friend.)

And I will be going to Harry Potter World. Yes, you're jealous.

YES, I'M JEALOUS.

and i never felt very enthusiastic about disney world but you make it sound like a delight. I'M JEALOUS AGAIN.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

It really is delightful! Your love of them just comes through! So adorable!

I think there's some videos you'll really, really love! Let me know if you have any ~feelings about them!

i almost feel like for me writing kissing seems like the biggest challenge because there's no way to experience that without another person

I definitely know what you're saying. And I understand your embarrassment--I don't like getting into specifics about myself either.

and then there is the technical side of things aka google is my friend

If I say that everything I know about sex I learned from fanficiton, is that an embarrassing thing to admit? Because it's true.

and i never felt very enthusiastic about disney world but you make it sound like a delight

I really think you'd have to be a Scrooge not to like at least one of the parks? Seriously, if I could move into EPCOT right now, I totally would. They hire students/young people from the different countries they portray and they have restaurants run by chefs from those different countries so it feels less exploitative than it might? I adore it.

[parkslady.livejournal.com]

YOU'RE GOING TO HARRY POTTER WORLD???? I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU. I can't wait to hear all about it because it's my favorite place in the world the end. (Also I totally agree with your Disney park preferences, EPCOT is the bessst.)

Please always talk about your kpop problem. WHAT A GOOD REC LIST YOU HAVE PUT TOGETHER. (GA IN THOUGH. GA. IN. *__*)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I AM. And your enthusiasm makes me so much more excited to go! Yay! People have always made fun of me loving EPCOT but I do not care--it is my happy place!

I am glad you enjoy my kpop problem and also my rec list. (GA IN IS A GODDES.)

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

I AM ALWAYS HERE IF YOU NEED A PORN BETA. But, yeah, I definitely feel more self-conscious about stuff where I should presumably have more knowledge. On a range of 0-10 where 0 = whatever, who even knows how dicks work and 10 = HAVE I TOLD THE INTERNET ABOUT MY MASTURBATORY HABITS????, I rank the awkwardness for writing slash about 2, het 4, femslash 7 or 8. Maybe this will get better as I write more explicit femslash, but I'm not expecting it to!

Say hello to Florida for me, and have fun! <3

(ALSO I AM WATCHING SOME OF THESE VIDEOS, LADIES YAYYYYYY)

(MISS A <33333)

(LAUREN I'M WRITING RPF AND LISTENING TO KPOP, I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO I AM ANYMORE)

[aerintine.livejournal.com]

I'M WRITING RPF AND LISTENING TO KPOP, I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO I AM ANYMORE

You are VERITY, MISTRESS OF WORLDS.



(miss A is killing me too. how so perfect, ladies?)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU!

I rank the awkwardness for writing slash about 2, het 4, femslash 7 or 8. Maybe this will get better as I write more explicit femslash, but I'm not expecting it to!

I can definitely see that.

I will!

(YAY LADIES! ESPECIALLY MISS A FAVORITE LADIES ALWAYS!)

(LAUREN I'M WRITING RPF AND LISTENING TO KPOP, I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO I AM ANYMORE)

WELCOME TO MY LIFE IT IS A STRANGE PLACE BUT QUITE DELIGHTFUL!

[indiesnopp.livejournal.com]

you are way too good for me ;~~;

why yes, I am very jealous of you! I hope you have a blast^^

(also: buuuhuhuhu SS501)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

♥

Thank you!

also: buuuhuhuhu SS501

Is this a good reaction? Is this a bad reaction? I don't know what this meaaaans!

[jetpacking.livejournal.com]

oh god a meta post
an hour of my time just disappeared into a big black void
i never knew anything about 1d except that i loved harry styles and now i just love harry more because i haven't gotten past that

all you need to know about sistar is that hyorin is a GODDESS her singing and dancing is just like. on another LEVEL. she is fucking unbelievable my korean beyonce
also yesssssssss BEG they are the Queens of the girls of kpop i don't care what anyone else says

re:porn i got all my knowledge from reading LMAO so, try reading some femslash for examples if you're feeling unsure of yourself? IT'S RESEARCH OK! lol. maybe it'd make you feel more comfortable with the...lack of dick......omfg

if i ever get myself to harry potter world, i will actually Bawl my eyes out. just seeing you mention it here has me getting all teary fjweklf

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I just really love meta, okay? :D

Harry seems like a pretty good person to love!

all you need to know about sistar is that hyorin is a GODDESS her singing and dancing is just like. on another LEVEL. she is fucking unbelievable my korean beyonce

I will pay attention to her, though!

re:porn i got all my knowledge from reading LMAO so, try reading some femslash for examples if you're feeling unsure of yourself? IT'S RESEARCH OK! lol. maybe it'd make you feel more comfortable with the...lack of dick......omfg

I also got all my knowledge from reading, too, so this is a good suggestion! Thank you!

Awww! *pats head* I will bring you pictures from HP World!

[aerintine.livejournal.com]

1/2

Thank you so much for reccing me <3.

Your K-pop playlist was so much fun to pore through last week - and I was quasi-impressed with myself that I had actually seen quite a few of them (non-infinite ones! :D). Loving everything miss A which is a problem. No more obsessions, please. There is not enough time in the day. ;)

Also, this is not a rec, but I’ve been writing het!porn (gender!swap) lately for the first time and I find that I actually find it more difficult to write than slash!porn. I think this is because I feel more pressure to get female sexual reactions right? Because I'm a woman. But the thing is: I have zero sexual experience (not even kissing), so writing about a woman having sex is just as foreign to me in one sense as writing about a guy having sex. And yet I feel like if I get the guy wrong, people will cut me more slack than if I write the lady wrong. Does that make sense at all? All I know is, I feel less confident writing het!porn than (dude)slash!porn. Perhaps this means I would feel twice the pressure if I were writing femslash!porn? Who konws?

I was just nodding my head along with all of this because it's all so hard to write smut well and it does feel like so much pressure. Femslash has proved to be REALLY challenging for me because I have no idea what it's like to have sex with a girl - but I keep reminding myself that the way different things feel are always going to be the same to a certain extent - the physical body is going to have similar physical reactions to things, right? So I can extrapolate on the experiences I do have, and remember that neither Caroline nor Elena are going to be the same as me - their experiences are theirs, and my challenge is to make them uniquely theirs. And they are their own people emotionally too. The emotional piece is the most important, so if I know my characters, then I know what's going to matter to them once their clothes are off, right? Gosh I hope so, lol, or I'm in trouble. The same holds true for Sungyeol.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

You're so welcome! I really enjoyed the fic so much, and I'm so glad I read it--I wouldn't have if it wasn't by one of my friends, because like I said: I didn't know I wanted that fic. But then I read it and was like I REALLY WANTED THIS FIC. So thank you for it!

I'm glad you liked the rec list!

Loving everything miss A which is a problem

I KNOW.

Femslash has proved to be REALLY challenging for me because I have no idea what it's like to have sex with a girl - but I keep reminding myself that the way different things feel are always going to be the same to a certain extent - the physical body is going to have similar physical reactions to things, right? So I can extrapolate on the experiences I do have, and remember that neither Caroline nor Elena are going to be the same as me - their experiences are theirs, and my challenge is to make them uniquely theirs.

I can only imagine how challenging that is, but it sounds like your head is definitely in the right place with it! Yay!

The emotional piece is the most important, so if I know my characters, then I know what's going to matter to them once their clothes are off, right? Gosh I hope so, lol, or I'm in trouble. The same holds true for Sungyeol.

True! Things I need to remember!

[aerintine.livejournal.com]

2/2

Honestly though, you have nothing to worry about because you've read approximately 6 metric tons of smutty fanfic in your fandom tenure so you know. You already know how to write it well, you really do. And the thing is, even though you don't yet have sexual experience with another person, you must know your own body and how different touches feel in different places, right? And all of that is relevant. At least, I should think so. Your characters' sex really should not be an amalgamation of your own sexual experiences anyway, however prolific they may be, because your characters are not you or your partner(s). So it's going to be different, and it should be.

I guess I just want to encourage you to give yourself a break - all the smut you've written so far has been glorious. And let me tell you something. It is not every author who can write an entire chapter of foreplay (and not even really get going into the foreplay yet! Holy crap I'm so excited because they haven't even really started so there's SO MUCH MORE TO COME! I'm such a lucky reader!) the way you did in Ch 6 of WSD and do it with the level of finesse you pulled off. It was incredibly sexy and intimate, and also had a real sense of fun and whimsy - because you made it about Sungyeol and Woohyun - and you are also successfully making it first time sex from a girl's perspective - I completely believed every nuance of Sungyeol feeling something as simple as how it feels to have hands hold his breasts - or the nervous rush of feelings when the panties finally come off and he's naked in a totally new way in front of Woohyun. Having someone's eyes on you like that can be really emotionally overwhelming (even if you've always had lady parts! :D) and you just - you got that so perfectly. Everything else will flow. I'm certain of it - you have nothing to worry about.

I'll also reiterate my offer to test read pieces of it if you want a second set of eyes - or just chat about stuff if you want to. I will be home all day today. I have absolutely zero problem talking about sex if you want to chat at all about any nuts and bolts, so to speak, as you get things written. :) It doesn't embarrass me in the slightest - and believe me, as a nurse who takes care of women who are pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or recently had babies, I have discussed and seen IT ALL. (I don't know how I can talk about this stuff with no problem at all but as soon as I start writing I begin blushing like crazy - SILLY)

You are aces, and your het!porn will be gorgeous. No worries at all.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

*blush* You are the absolute sweetest! Thank you for being so incredibly encouraging!

It was incredibly sexy and intimate, and also had a real sense of fun and whimsy - because you made it about Sungyeol and Woohyun - and you are also successfully making it first time sex from a girl's perspective - I completely believed every nuance of Sungyeol

THIS IS THE BEST NEWS EVER. I mean, you know me: I don't care about porn on its own, I only care about what it says about the characters, so knowing that you thought I made it about them is so good to hear and so is hearing that it was sexy and seemed realistic for Yeol and THANK YOU.

I can't tell you how happy your comments make me and how much they inspire me to write. All comments really get me fired up and wanting to write, but yours and Kelsey's have just taken it to a new level because I can just see that you read it the way I want it to be read and you like the details and just...everything. I really do often read back through comments to get myself into the writing mood, and yours have been such an encouragement for me. THANK YOU.

And I might take you up on chatting some later tonight!

I have discussed and seen IT ALL.

This is excellent to know!

(I don't know how I can talk about this stuff with no problem at all but as soon as I start writing I begin blushing like crazy - SILLY)

Haha! I'm kind of the opposite--I've gotten to the point where I don't blush at all when I write it, but I know that if anyone so much as tried to kiss me in real life I would turn red as a tomato!

You are the best! ♥

[suprockstar.livejournal.com]

Can I say I love you for reccing ss501? They are my babies and my number one (tied with dbsk) and I'm so glad you like "love ya". :')