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I love Darla and I love AtS S2 - though sometimes I fear not for the reasons that were intended. (Anyone who has the (mis?)fortune to watch Redefinition with me can attest to the hysterics I descend into when watching Angel chat about how he 'isn't ready' and do his silly little pull ups...) There are, however, certain things that irk me - the end of The Trial for one, when Darla might as well be playing Angel's wank fantasy of a saved maiden. That's not the story I see at all!
And so I mixed it up a bit.
Too Hot for Drumstep.
Warnings for quick flashing images and pushing Angel's 15 rating quite hard - sex, violence and combinations of the two; issues of suicide.
"I thought, if I could save you, I'd somehow save myself."
Fuck that.
[AtS + Wondawulf (vs. Ella Fitzgerald) 'Too Hot for Drumstep']
[Hi-Def Stream and download link - see it shinier!]
Wondawulf, BTW, is a DJ/producer from Budapest, who is fab - check him out on Soundcloud!
And so I mixed it up a bit.
Warnings for quick flashing images and pushing Angel's 15 rating quite hard - sex, violence and combinations of the two; issues of suicide.
"I thought, if I could save you, I'd somehow save myself."
Fuck that.
[AtS + Wondawulf (vs. Ella Fitzgerald) 'Too Hot for Drumstep']
[Hi-Def Stream and download link - see it shinier!]
Wondawulf, BTW, is a DJ/producer from Budapest, who is fab - check him out on Soundcloud!
(no subject)
Date: 10/09/2010 23:42 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 10/09/2010 23:48 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 10/09/2010 23:49 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 10/09/2010 23:52 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 13/09/2010 00:37 (UTC)I love your whipcracky, staccato clipping. And the business from ~0:47 to 1:02, with Darla slowly turning and going, "waitafuckin'minute." And Darla's entrance.
What a brilliant song! So-much-cooler-than-you'll-ever-be '50s jazz mashed with hyper-modern, uh, mashing. Perfect for Darla, the collision of eras. I've been thinking a little bit, lately, about how much I enjoy remixes as vid soundtracks. They please me for meta-viddish reasons.
You know what else I really love? Your little italicized summaries. They're awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 13/09/2010 08:55 (UTC)Exactly! There's plenty of story for everyone!
Thank you! I thought maybe the shorter-and-shorter clips thing was a bit obvious for that passage, but then I didn't see any reason to go against the grain and I ended up quite liking it.
And I think I agree with you about remixes - it's always great when a song can say more than one thing, and if there's a conflict then that's even better. (It probably goes without saying that I loooove this song...)
And hee! Thanks also. The summaries are fun (and I love that abstractness works so much better with vids than with fics, not that I'm going to give up trying).
(no subject)
Date: 14/09/2010 00:38 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 14/09/2010 01:08 (UTC)And then she went and wrote a ficcish meditation on Victorian vibrators, inspired by Marie de France's "The Nightingale" (!), and a villanelle based on Disney's The Little Mermaid. Srsly, Quin, srsly.
I AM COMING AND I AM BRINGING CAKE. *sets phasers to Make New Friend*
(no subject)
Date: 13/09/2010 02:43 (UTC)And thank heavens for that! Darla was always too interesting for that. I liked the song choice for this, too.
(no subject)
Date: 13/09/2010 08:56 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 14/09/2010 06:26 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 14/09/2010 12:12 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 14/09/2010 12:24 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18/01/2011 21:02 (UTC)So. I really love that this shows the pragmatic self-building side of her but also the temporically-dislocated (damn, your music choice rocks) "who even am I?" side. Probably more sides, but these are the ones I could grasp. Definitely an awesome vid I'll be revisiting as I make my way through Angel S3.
(no subject)
Date: 18/01/2011 23:05 (UTC)Cheers again! :D
(no subject)
Date: 19/01/2011 11:49 (UTC)But, on Angel, there's no more clear hero/villain division, thank god, and, like you said, we're shown a glimpse of the real Darla. And of Angelus, who ~got~ her, treated her like the sadist she is rather than the damsel she looks like - and Angel just doesn't, just sees her as a prop, like all men do (not to sex, but to salvation, but I doubt it matters to her) and it is very sad. Especially since, because he does know her, she can't just treat him like she did Lindsey (and actually, her no-makeup-overlarge-sweatshirt manipulation of Lindsey really delighted me).
Ekh, this was all over the place. All I meant was: yep, Darla rocks, and I hope you'll be exploring her some more.
(no subject)
Date: 19/01/2011 20:20 (UTC)Oh, yes, you're very right about this. I always take the talk about Buffy's power being routed in masculinity with a pinch of salt, because I wonder what the line is between things proving 'masculinity' and just 'having power' (/the confidence to express power) - and I've never quite worked it out. But when she's set against Darla, then the masculine/feminine divide definitely comes out, because they're technically physical equals.
actually, her no-makeup-overlarge-sweatshirt manipulation of Lindsey really delighted me
Me too! That scene of her in Redefinition, I think, when she's hiding out at Lindsey's apartment looking all fey and weak and white, only to roll her eyes at the cosseting and paw through Lindsey's files? I love that scene.
(no subject)
Date: 19/01/2011 23:32 (UTC)Oh, I'm so relieved you got that. I generally dislike assertations that Buffy's storyline is male, because there's nothing 'innately male' about getting to make quips, having broody love interests and sacrificing oneself to save the world a lot. The main reason, I think, that more men than women seem to get that kind of story is tradition.
Now, it's also tradition to cast women as temtpresses, backstabbers, bringers of corruption (which is Darla's basic job description on BtVS), but it also reflects a widespread social paranoia. Most women get accused of being manipulative at some point, I think. So her story IS more 'innately female', in a sense, and it's she's the very person women are told they must abhor while simultaneously being prompted to try to become. (You know, "good girls never use sex for anything" vs "7 Ways to Get Your Hubby to Do What You Want".)
And I love AtS forever for making Darla a sympathetic (though still evil) character rather than a caricature of maligned feminity created just so Buffy could fight it. (And ultimately not beat, interestingly. I still think that killing Darla was one of the creepiest things Angel ever did, circumstances nonwithstanding. Not wrong or out-of-character necessarily, just chilling, and probably somewhat messed up on a thematical level.)