I can do the DVD commentary meme now that I have something to work with. From ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
philomytha:
Pick any passage of 500 words or fewer from any story I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the characters' heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you’d expect to find on a DVD commentary track.
I have listened to approximately two DVD commentaries (because I really prefer to hear the soundtrack) but never mind that. Commentary on writing is more fun.
On a completely different... wait, I can link them. Were I doing a DVD commentary for "Lewis" episodes "Life Born of Fire," "The Quality of Mercy," and at least one other I can't think of right now, there would be a point where I started saying something like "Oh my God look at the gorgeous scarlet runner beans" and then "Oh look, runner beans again" and so forth. I mean, the number of shots with a character's head framed by runner beans just got funny after a while, and this is not a show that spends a lot of time in gardens. BUT I NOTICE THESE THINGS, OKAY. If I get around to grabbing some screencaps, I may do a post for Grow It Eat It, although it will have to say "Look, people, at the gorgeous English scarlet runner beans. We really can't grow them here." Though God knows I keep trying. But summers where it hits over 95 F on a regular basis just do not work for heat-sensitive plants (plus, Mexican bean beetles adore them).
Well, that's gardening for you: always wanting something you can't have. I may manage to score a community garden plot (Brit. allotment) to replace my increasingly shady vegetable garden, thanks to today's conversation with my friend who administers the county program; not by circumventing the rules, mind you, but by being told exactly how to use them to get what I want. Hopefully the next time we get weeks of scorching temperatures and no rain I'll still want it.
philomytha:Pick any passage of 500 words or fewer from any story I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the characters' heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you’d expect to find on a DVD commentary track.
I have listened to approximately two DVD commentaries (because I really prefer to hear the soundtrack) but never mind that. Commentary on writing is more fun.
On a completely different... wait, I can link them. Were I doing a DVD commentary for "Lewis" episodes "Life Born of Fire," "The Quality of Mercy," and at least one other I can't think of right now, there would be a point where I started saying something like "Oh my God look at the gorgeous scarlet runner beans" and then "Oh look, runner beans again" and so forth. I mean, the number of shots with a character's head framed by runner beans just got funny after a while, and this is not a show that spends a lot of time in gardens. BUT I NOTICE THESE THINGS, OKAY. If I get around to grabbing some screencaps, I may do a post for Grow It Eat It, although it will have to say "Look, people, at the gorgeous English scarlet runner beans. We really can't grow them here." Though God knows I keep trying. But summers where it hits over 95 F on a regular basis just do not work for heat-sensitive plants (plus, Mexican bean beetles adore them).
Well, that's gardening for you: always wanting something you can't have. I may manage to score a community garden plot (Brit. allotment) to replace my increasingly shady vegetable garden, thanks to today's conversation with my friend who administers the county program; not by circumventing the rules, mind you, but by being told exactly how to use them to get what I want. Hopefully the next time we get weeks of scorching temperatures and no rain I'll still want it.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-12 06:10 am (UTC)From:Anyhow, can I have some commentary on this bit?
"Good way to deal with that suicidal streak you've all been worrying I have." Gregor bit off his words so hard Miles could nearly see the blood. "I could have found another way too. I tried to, just stupidly. I let Serg go, after the kidnapping. He'd already killed four people, and he might have killed more in escaping. My luck that he didn't. And" -- Gregor held up a hand, forestalling Miles's objection as though warding off a blow -- "I apologize for working on a scale smaller than planetary warfare -- also by luck -- but I think the few who died were missed just as thoroughly. Maybe not Cavilo. The others, though. I wrote condolence letters too. You once told me" -- eyes drilling into Miles's -- "that there was no moral difference between killing ten thousand and killing one. Or four, I assume. What do you think now?"
"No moral difference," Miles said; it was the only thing he could say, with all the equivalences and perpetrators jumbling together in his mind. And shit, when had he said that, and had he really pulled that ten thousand out of his subconscious? "A practical one, though. Massive slaughters mean more ghosts and legacies to trip over. An entire new layer of my father's relations with Count Vorhalas has come clear, for example. And then there's politics: forty years on, we can finally stop holding our breath with Escobar and Beta, but who knows what might have happened without the war?"
"If Serg had inherited," said Simon, "or if your father had died with him at Escobar and not given us his firm leadership as Regent, or if we hadn't succeeded in uprooting the Ministry of Political Education, the resulting chaos would have opened the door to the Cetagandans. They are still, demonstrably" -- he nodded at Gregor -- "looking for opportunities."
Gregor scowled. "If they don't invest fully in them, it doesn't matter. Except to the few who die as a result, and those who mourn them. And I am not responsible for the Cetagandans and their... devices and desires" -- a phrase of his mother's, Miles recognized -- "all I can do is attempt to protect the Imperium from them, and from the wilder desires of her own subjects. Including mine. I don't believe I would resort to Ezar's methods, at least on such a scale, but I don't privilege myself above him for my restraint." He put his hands flat on his desk -- the tendons stood out like whipcord -- and rose to his feet. "Thank you, gentlemen. This has been quite illuminating, but I can't take any more of your time."
It was a clear dismissal in Imperial tones, and Miles was ready to stand, bow, and take his leave, uncertain if he'd be returning -- the thing about serving at the Emperor's pleasure was that if you didn't please him, you were out of a job; he could yet be the youngest Auditor Emeritus ever -- and then Simon, who might have lost a shitload of data points but still possessed his iron nerve, curled his fingers securely around the arms of his chair and spoke, in the oh-so-familiar tones he used to a subordinate whose self-reporting was in arrears.
"Gregor. You're not done yet. Sit down."
no subject
Date: 2012-08-12 01:10 pm (UTC)From:And yes, the can't-have-it-so-I-want-it instinct in gardening is universal. I've also heard a lot of late from people in northern California and the Pacific Northwest about their inability to grow tomatoes. Which we can do here, if various pests don't get them first.
I don't know if you can get Minnesota Midget in England, but it's a small one-serving melon that produces pretty fast. Pests and diseases are why we have trouble with melons here, not lack of heat, but I have had Minnesota Midgets come through.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-12 03:50 pm (UTC)From:I've tried growing Minnesota Midget, and I do know people who've had success with it locally, but I don't think I have adequately green fingers. Though this year, the two solid months of daily torrential rain killed most things, and anything that survived that got eaten by the bumper crop of slugs :-(. But I do have tomatoes! And plums, of course... *looks dolefully at giant box of plums still to use up before they rot*