Trabia Garden

More adventuring through my fandom history! All three of my real-person fandoms are in this instalment, so it's easy to skip if RPF makes you uncomfortable.


Scrubs

First saw this when I was seventeen. I don't remember exactly how I got into it, but I think maybe my brothers were watching it? I was surprised by how little fanfiction there was at the time.

I haven't revisited Scrubs in a very long time. I'm curious to know how it would hold up.

Previously I'd mainly written angst and introspection, but in this fandom I took tentative steps towards writing more dialogue and humour. I enjoyed it a lot. (I've sort of fallen back into angst and introspection nowadays! And I didn't entirely escape angst with Scrubs; I wrote the inevitable Silent Hill crossover, after all.)

Favourite character: Dr Cox! Very angry, very sarcastic, very unprepared to engage with his feelings. I had a lot of fun writing him.
Favourite pairing: JD/Cox. I'm pleased to look back and realise my taste in pairings has always run towards the slightly unhealthy. I also enjoyed Cox/Ben and was strangely taken with Elliot/Janitor, although I never wrote fanfiction for the latter.
Number of words written: 35,548.

Snippet: I once wrote a JD/Cox fic where JD was handcuffed to a radiator, then a sequel, then a retelling of the first fic from Dr Cox's point of view. This was going to be the Cox-perspective sequel to that.

( Scrubs unfinished snippet. JD/Cox, 2006. )


Top Gear

thegreatesthits/gayjunglefever was the first online friend I ever met in person (we went to see the Silent Hill film on our first meeting; she was not familiar with Silent Hill and was incredibly confused). One day, when I was just about to turn eighteen, I went to her house, and she enthused about Top Gear, and I went '...that's a show about cars, isn't it? I'm not really interested in cars.'

She showed me the episode where they make their own amphibious vehicles.

I spent the next year and a half writing fanfiction.

Top Gear fandom was an absolute blast. I found a lot of lasting friendships (hi, guys ♥). I found a housemate! I met up with a whole bunch of you in real life to have adventures in London, which probably did a fair bit to help me overcome my extreme shyness. I owe a great deal to Jeremy Clarkson, which isn't good, perhaps, but it's true.

This was the first real-person fandom I wrote for, and Richard Hammond had his jet-car crash right after I started writing fanfiction. A lot of people in the fandom felt really guilty for writing stories about car crashes beforehand. It shaped my personal approach to RPF; if I'm writing about real people, I cannot write about anything terrible happening. (Well, anything plausible and terrible, at least. Going to Silent Hill is still fair game.) After an even worse 'something horrible happened right when you were getting really into these guys' experience with Linkin Park, I doubt I'll ever pick up a real-person fandom again. But the ones I've been in have been a lot of fun.

Favourite character: Jeremy Clarkson. Extremely obnoxious, extremely fun to write.
Favourite pairing: Jeremy/Richard. I think James/Richard was the most popular pairing in the fandom, but I just wanted Jeremy Clarkson being obnoxious all over the place, and it was particularly fun if he was being obnoxious at Richard, because Richard was worse than James at enduring it.
Number of words written: 90,357.

Snippet: Jeremy and James discuss how to deal with the fact that Richard Hammond is a werewolf.

( Top Gear unfinished snippet. Werewolf Richard, circa 2007. )


Supernatural

One of two shows I got into because I had a dream about them and went 'I'm going to take this as a sign I should watch this show' (the other was Atlantis, although I never wrote for that). I started watching this when I was nineteen. (I can't believe it's still running.) The first episode I saw was Faith, which definitely caught my interest. The second or third was Malleus Maleficarum, which was so revolting I almost stopped watching then and there. Fortunately, I persevered!

I got extremely invested in Supernatural. Fictional siblings! Unhealthy coping mechanisms! What a great combination. The only fandom I've ever attended a convention for.

Favourite character: Dean Winchester. What a mess.
Favourite pairing: I don't think I 'ship anything in Supernatural much, actually. I dabbled a bit in Sam/Dean when I first got into Supernatural, back in season three, when Sam/Dean was pretty much all that existed, but I ended up concluding I preferred them as brothers. I do have a certain strange fondness for Castiel/Bobby. (There's barely any fanfiction, which perhaps isn't a surprise. I read a couple of Castiel/Bobby fics recently and went '...actually, this feels not entirely unlike Hank/Connor.')
Number of words written: 52,383, although this is counting the finished-but-never-posted Derren Brown/Doctor Who/Supernatural fic chapter (see below).

Snippet: I wish I'd finished this Supernatural/Pushing Daisies fic.

( Supernatural unfinished snippet. Supernatural/Pushing Daisies, 2008. )


Derren Brown

How did I get into Derren Brown? I was twenty years old. I think I caught his stage show Something Wicked This Way Comes on the television. He temporarily deprived himself of oxygen, then lay down on a bed of broken glass and made a man stand on him. I'll be honest: it was hot. I promptly created derrenbrownfic. It never got hugely far off the ground, but people did write a few things, which is impressive given that there was only one 'character' involved.

Derren Brown is the only celebrity to whom I have sent a ukulele in the post. He sent back a very nice letter.

Favourite character: There is literally one character.
Favourite pairing: Derren Brown/the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who, which obviously makes vast amounts of sense.
Number of words written: 27,206.

Snippet: From the Supernatural chapter of my and moogle62's overambitious Derren-as-the-Doctor's-companion project. The chapter was going to be called 'In Which Derren Is Shot, and Things Get Worse from There'. I actually finished writing the entire Supernatural chapter, but we had a couple of other chapters planned to come before it, so I never posted it!

( Derren Brown unfinished snippet. Derren Brown/Doctor Who/Supernatural. )


British Comedy

British comedy is obviously a fairly expansive fandom, but I was in the Charlie Brooker/David Mitchell corner of it. I'd liked Mitchell for a while (I first became aware of him when Joseph introduced me to Peep Show), but I only got into British comedy as a fandom after discovering Brooker at the age of twenty-one.

This fandom was great, great fun. As with Top Gear, many of the members lived in London, so we met up and hung out a lot. Even better: a lot of comedy shows are recorded in London, and you can apply for free tickets! I went to twenty-something comedy recordings with other members of the fandom and wrote them up on my 'recording recaps' tag. It was great.

This entire fandom manifested at the start of 2010, thrived for six months and vanished pretty much overnight when Brooker got married, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

Favourite character: Charlie Brooker. Crude, hilarious, self-deprecating, surprisingly soft-hearted, worryingly attractive.
Favourite pairing: Charlie Brooker/David Mitchell. I also loved David Mitchell/Victoria Coren and was ecstatic when they got married. First time an RPF 'ship of mine turned out to be canon!
Number of words written: 20,435.

Snippet: This was a work of Charlie Brooker/David Mitchell romantic angst that I never finished because it seemed like more fun to write about them training Pokémon.

( British comedy unfinished snippet. Charlie Brooker/David Mitchell, 2010. )

Last So Wrong It's Right recording of the series yesterday! The guests for the first episode were Susan Calman, Richard Osman and Rob SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH B, I CANNOT REMEMBER, SORRY ROB SOMETHING (EDIT: Rob Beckett! Thank you, ruthi! I'd noted him down as 'Rob Bennett' and only realised that was wrong when I got home); the guests for the second were Calman again, Shaun Pye and Miles Jupp. The host, of course, was Charlie Brooker; this is the second recording I've been to at which he has speculated on shagging himself via time travel. Here is my report!


( So Wrong It's Right recording, 1st May 2012. )


I think this series of So Wrong It's Right is going to be broadcast on Radio 4 later this month, so keep an ear out for that! In the meantime: everyone knows the thoroughly excellent Would I Lie to You? is on BBC One on Fridays at the moment, right? Well, it is.

Yesterday, ruthi very kindly offered me a last-minute ticket for a recording of Charlie Brooker's radio panel show So Wrong It's Right! Two episodes were recorded: the guests for the first were Lee Mack, Holly Walsh, Barry Cryer; the guests for the second were Lee Mack again, Susan Calman and SOMEONE CALLED DANNY MEYER OR MAYER OR MYERS OR SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES, I CANNOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME FIND HIM ON GOOGLE (EDIT: lozenger8 has identified him as Daniel Maier). Because of this inability to confirm, I'll be referring to him as 'Daniel' rather than by surname in this report (the producer introduced him to us as 'Danny', but Brooker called him 'Daniel' throughout).

Here is what I can remember!


( So Wrong It's Right recording, 2nd March 2012. )


The episodes should be broadcast on Radio 4 at some point in May, I believe. I hope you enjoyed this report!

My mind is currently doing that thing where it immerses itself in one fandom and then gets confused when I try to read fanfiction for another. Have you ever tried to read Brooker/Mitchell fic when both Charlie Brooker and David Mitchell are played by James McAvoy in your head? It's a very strange experience.


The theme of this entry is 'MICHAEL FASSBENDER (who plays Erik in X-Men: First Class) AND JAMES MCAVOY (who plays Charles) BEING PRECIOUS IN JOINT INTERVIEWS'. It is a theme with plenty of material.

If you have seen X-Men: First Class, you may wish to watch these and see the actors being adorable! If you have not seen X-Men: First Class, you may wish to watch these anyway and use the adorability of the actors to determine whether you should watch X-Men: First Class. (Hint: you should.)

Fassbender sings a song for Erik and Charles; McAvoy collapses in giggles. No spoilers for the film. If you watch only one of these videos, make it this one; it's only eighty seconds long.

The cast tease each other about hand gestures and crossdressing. Contains a couple of clips from the film.

McAvoy and Fassbender discuss merging into a flying distributor of love (from the 5.20 mark; the link should take you straight there). The entire interview contains some extremely spoilery clips from the film, but there are no spoilers from 5.20 onwards.

Also, have a McAvoy-Fassbender GIF I can't seem to stop watching (from this interview, which contains spoilery clips from the film). Only just managed to refrain from posting it without a cut.


( ADORABLE )


help help they are too cute and I don't know what to do.

I'm not very good at April Fools' Day. I considered making a big fake 'I'M LEAVING FANDOM, GOODBYE FOREVER' post, but what I've decided to do instead is this:

- You post the worst fanfiction idea you can think of in the comments. Inappropriate crossovers, incompatible pairings, stupid AUs or just wildly out-of-character behaviour: all are welcome here. 'Squall Leonhart gives up being a SeeD to pursue his dream of becoming a telemarketer', for example, or 'Silent Hill 2 AU: Pyramid Head is a florist, James Sunderland is a regular customer, love ensues'.
- I unwisely attempt to write a few lines of that fic.

It's sort of in the spirit of the day, if not a traditional April Fools' joke. Prompt away! (If you make a request featuring a fandom with which I am not familiar, I reserve the right to make things up based solely on the fandom's name.)

THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA. I suppose that's sort of the point, but still. SUCH A BAD IDEA.

Something I forgot from Sunday's Would I Lie to You? recording: Havers saying that he found swimming with dolphins a bit unsettling because they were larger than he'd expected.

Mack: Did you think they were going to be pilchards? 'I can't wait to go swimming with the pilchards. My God, those pilchards are huge!'


When valderys and I were at said Would I Lie to You? recording, amandapear and sawnoffcourtney very kindly offered us tickets to The Unbelievable Truth on Monday! The panel were Tony Hawks, Arthur Smith, Rhod Gilbert and Charlie Brooker (again! I can't believe the comedy-related luck I've been having recently).

Going to so many recordings in such a short time has sort of exhausted my memory, but here is my report! In case anyone who might be interested is unfamiliar with the concept of The Unbelievable Truth: it is a Radio 4 panel game in which panellists must attempt to spot true facts in lectures composed largely of nonsense, hosted by David Mitchell.


( The Unbelievable Truth recording, 7th March 2011. )


Three recordings in four days. That's a bit ridiculous. There are no more recordings in my immediate future, though, so I'll stop spamming your flist with reports for a while. Hope you've enjoyed these!

Two days ago, I went to a recording of Charlie Brooker's radio panel game So Wrong It's Right! Two episodes were recorded: the guests for the first were Mark Watson, Holly Walsh and Rufus Hound; the guests for the second were Fergus Craig, Sharon Horgan and Rufus Hound again. As ever, I've written up whatever I can remember.


( So Wrong It's Right recording, 22nd February 2011. )


So Wrong It's Right is broadcast on BBC Radio Four; I believe this series is going to start on Thursday the tenth of March at 18.30. Thank you so much to anewcitylife for the ticket!

Managed, courtesy of totaldrwhofreak, to go to the second unbroadcast pilot of 10 O'Clock Live, the live current affairs programme with David Mitchell, Charlie Brooker, Jimmy Carr and Lauren Laverne! As ever, I have written down what I can remember for the benefit of those who weren't there.


( 10 O'Clock Live unbroadcast pilot, 13th January 2011. )


10 O'Clock Live is starting up in earnest next week; it'll be shown on Channel 4 on Thursday evenings. You can probably work out what time.

I'm not feeling at all well (sore throat, sniffles, dry cough; I sound a bit like Bob Dylan, and last night I was feverish enough to make walking home feel like trying to operate a videogame with unresponsive controls, although fortunately I feel slightly more in command of myself today), but am I going to let that keep me from making a stupid seasonal manip? No, of course not.




Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it, a fabulous Saturday to all those who don't, and no matter what your celebrational tastes I shower you all with love and terrible crossover ideas. NOW TO REGAIN FULL HEALTH BY SHEER FORCE OF WILL BEFORE CHRISTMAS DAY ACTUALLY ARRIVES.

That's the plan, at any rate. We'll see!

Today, I wandered onto Twitter to search for reactions to the revelation that David Cameron and Nick Clegg had poisoned the leader of another country, and then I remembered that that was actually just a dream I had. Whoops.


A listing from today's edition of the Radio Times that I rather enjoyed:

8.00 White Van Man
New series. 1/6. A surprising look at the lives and work of Britain's independent tradesmen. In this edition, welder Jim Brown has an unusual commission: to build a cage for the bondage dungeon of ex-gangland enforcer Dave Courtney. Elsewhere, Pete and Steve of the Buff Builders Handyman Service pose for their 2011 calendar and fix up TV star Annabel Giles's garden.

On the last night of Big Brother, I remember seeing very sarcastic television listings in a newspaper somewhere: something like 'the last ever episode of Big Brother, oh no, what a shame' and 'a collection of moments from Big Brother that we can't forget, no matter how much we may want to'. I wish I'd written them down.

Ooh, how about we all make up implausible television listings in the comments? Charlie Brooker is, of course, the king of this (or was until the broadcast of Touch the Truck (twenty contestants hold onto a truck! the last one to let go wins the truck! eighty hours of fun! (I'm assuming the broadcast didn't show all eighty hours)) made him realise that television had reached a point of ridiculousness at which it was impossible to parody); some of his more worksafe inventions (from TVGoHome, a very unworksafe site):

9.50pm Metal Gear Solid News
Peter Sissons hides behind a pillar and attempts to whisper all the latest current affairs stories without alerting a nearby guard.

12.15am Touch Stapleton
Members of the public queue up to stroke John Stapleton's forearm in a non-sexual way.

1.00am Haunted Painting 24
Uninterrupted live broadcast of the notorious E-bay 'Haunted Painting', offering viewers at home the opportunity to sit up all night staring into the eyes of an illustrated boy, too scared to switch off in case he inexplicably scowls at them the second they reach for the remote.

3.00pm 101 Unforgivable Farmyard Pastimes
4: Driving a tractor into a pig's face.

(I think my favourite part of the last is the fact that it's an hour and a quarter long.)

So, yes! Tell me how particularly ridiculous programmes or just programmes you wish existed would be listed in the Radio Times or equivalent! (If you're only just seeing this entry after a night out watching fireworks, it's not too late! ...in retrospect, past nine on Bonfire Night was a really bad time to post this.)