This is part of a 'panel' from the otw_onlinecon. The subject is Your personal fannish history. It's rather free-form, which is good, because this post rambles a bit, but it's chock full of random fandom 'stuff' about me.


Fandoms:


I've had a lot over the years. I started working with fandom stuff long long ago. I have a tendency to get sucked in for short bursts of time. Some of my fandoms span years and years, some are short-lived.

These are not in any kind of chronological order, because they overlap – a LOT.

When I was younger, there were things like The Long Ranger, My Little Pony (b/c I love horses and those pony toys were the coolest thing ever!) and Defenders of the Earth - the latter started my love of stage magic, which I'm not good at at all, but I've gleaned a lot of information about it over the years and it's come in handy with some RPG stuff I've done recently (more on that later).

Automan, The A-team, Knight Rider (coolest car on TV) and Alf (remember him?) were shows I was caught up in for a while – the first two more than the latter, but that stupid furry alien was funny in the mid-80's.

I wrote fic-like stuff for Defenders of the Earth and we made up stories for the MLPs, but beyond that, not a lot of 'fandom' things going on then. A couple kiddie fan clubs and the like – my mom signed me up for the Lone Ranger fan club at one point, I had a mask and a badge and everything. Too bad what I really wanted was the horse! "Heigh-ho, Silver! Away!"

St. Elsewhere, Doogie Howser, MD (which is still funny today – evidence of decent writing), and MacGyver popped up in the '90's. I got into St. Elsewhere b/c the man who did the voice of K.I.T.T. was one of the doctors, not sure how I got into Doogie, but MacGyver, someone at school had a photo of him and thought I'd been living under a rock because I didn't know who he was. After that day? Yeah – I knew who MacGyver was after that. Hell, my first e-mail address was revyGcaM [at] (email provider)… had to spell it backwards b/c forward was taken.

Once there was e-mail and Internet access, even with just the bare-bones that was Prodigy at the time, came an expansion of the world of 'fandom'. Before that, it was just talking to your friends at school about the actors you thought were 'hot'. So, message boards brought the land of the discussion forum into my sphere. Which was really cool, because suddenly there are even MORE people who like the same things you do.

Where In the World Is Carmen San Diego - initially a computer game, but adapted for a PBS game show – was big for me. The main appeal was the singing group Rockapella (whom I still follow, though not as religiously). I watched them go from a 4-man, nearly unknown bunch of guys singing clues on TV, to a 5-man group that gained popularity around the globe and now play concert tours all over. There have been a LOT of changes to the group just since I found out who they were. It started out with Sean, Elliot, Scott and Barry. Later they added Jeff, but when WITWICS ended, Sean left and they brought in – the new guy, and I can't remember his name. Then George came on to learn the ropes while Barry was on his way out and, most recently, Elliot's decided to leave and they're bringing in another new guy. The group has changed and NONE of the original, founding members are part of the crew anymore. They sound hasn't changed much, nor has the style – they stick with what they do best and it still works. Which is way cool! :) I have nearly all of their CDs; I have photos from someone's concert; I have window clings and all sorts of other Rocka-goodies. Didn't write fanfic about them though – not my thing, really, though I did give a speech about them for a speech class in college.

A friend at work got me hooked on Highlander. I think this was the first 'serious' fandom I was into. 'Serious' meaning, quite a bit of time devoted to it and extensive fic-writing and message board usage. Yahoo!Groups (well, they were eGroups then) and other mailing lists. And the old Yahoo! Message boards too. I came into the Highlander online-fandom realm a little later than most, so all of the big 'fan wars' were gone, but the Clans were still around and I jumped into a few of those. I was even part of one that got started and took off for a little while, then died slowly – The Clan MacSlow, for those of us who are 'speed challenged' with fic-writing. I’m still slow with fic writing, but the organized clans seem to have fallen away. I'm a Connor MacLeod fan and a Methos fan. That 4th installment never happened and Connor is alive. The 5th one is so much worse. And, obviously, I have a particular fondness for the second movie (the Director's Cut, not that Planet Zeist thing).

Highlander, like MacGyver, is one of those fandoms that I can't seem to shake. Not that I want to. It drove itself full-force while I was in college. So much so, that that's actually how I got my online moniker. I referred to Highlander II in an assignment for a class – something about environmental degradation and the need to put a shield around the planet if we destroy the ozone layer – and the professor (whom I still speak with from time-to-time) brought it up several times over the course of the semester, so the name stuck, especially as it came up about the time we switched ISPs at home, so I needed a new sign-on. I still drag out the old Highlander episodes and movies to watch when I get in a mood. I even have a ring from the Highlander store that I still wear and a Four Horseman keychain on my keys and a MacLeod pendant hanging on the rearview mirror of my car.

I wrote a LOT of fanfiction for Highlander, though most of it never made it to the 'posted' stage. Remember that 'slow' thing? That means that a lot of my stuff never gets finished. The few pieces I have finished are on my website. Even some of my first graphic attempts were Highlander-related.

The ultimate culmination of fandom was the thesis I wrote my senior year in college for my major – political science. My topic was 'political structures in motion pictures' and how movies depicted the political world in 'present day' films vs. 'future time' films. I pulled 8 films – 1) Highlander II, 2) Star Trek VI, 3) Escape from LA, 4) Fortress, 5) The American President, 6) Stargate, 7) Pandora's Clock and 8) The Big Easy - for my analysis. Yes, I managed to work fandom into the biggest paper I've written for acquiring a grade. I even made a VHS tape of clips from the films depicting what I was writing about. I had other source materials, but the base was the 8 films.

Along with Highlander, I was into The Sentinel (the UPN tv show) and The Pretender. I did watch Profiler some, but I wasn't heavy into that particular fandom. The Pretender, however, I was into a lot – even so much that I joined up with the Virtual Series after the tv series ended. While, near the end of my time with the group, there were issues, the experience was a good one, overall. I made friends there, some I still chat with now, and worked on something that was read and followed by a LOT of people.

Law & Order caught me for a bit – b/c Jack McCoy is the shit! And I do still watch, but they've made so many cast changes lately that it's harder to keep up and some of the storylines aren't nearly as compelling as the ones from several years ago. I also jumped onto the Law & Order: SVU bandwagon, but not until a little later. I still keep up with SVU, though I'm strongly hoping for Alex Cabot to return. She is awesome! I did write a couple things for the online fanzine Apocrypha while it was still running – those under the moniker 'The Sentinel'.

My love for all things Richard Dean Anderson got me to watch Stargate SG-1, which I was very reluctant to look into because I didn't like the movie. I am *so* glad I got started watching this show! The first four seasons are AMAZING and while later seasons aren't the shining beacons of awesome the first four were, there are a LOT of things and people that I found as a result. The Showtime site for the show with all the games and things started it, then there's Ausgate's Stargate Command – which is how I found out about Gatecon. One of the people I met on Ausgate (ich_bin_defekt ) and I decided to go to Gatecon in 2002. It was sort of a 'whim' decision, but it turned out to be a whole lot of fun. And remember my friend who got me into Highlander? Yeah, she decided she wanted to go too! I've been to Gatecon 4 times and I'll be heading there this year to meet Richard Dean Anderson!

Stargate SG-1 is one of the fandoms that I was in very heavily for a while, again, part of a Virtual Series for it, this time as a story editor, though I had to pinch hit write one of the episodes. The remnants of this project are on my website. I've done fanfiction, graphic work, moderated message boards – in fact, that's how I found ASciFi (now The Chronicles Network) and started my long stretch of acquiring over 10,000 posts! (My post count now lies in the 9k range b/c the post count rules are different on Chrons, but that's not really an issue.) Episode discussions, fan art, fanfiction, games, anything you can think of is there.

Hockey has been a big part of my fan life – starting back in the MacGyver days – Wayne Gretzky kicked it off and I followed the Kings, then I saw Mike Modano on the cover of a hockey magazine and got hooked into the Stars. I love to watch hockey, but I'm incredibly annoyed at the sports networks not running it at all. Fuck you ESPN.

JAG hooked me for a bit and I still watch it sometimes in the mornings when I'm getting ready for work. But I never could get into NCIS. Mark Harmon on St. Elsewhere was one thing, but on this JAG spin-off , just can't do it.

Now for the big guns: BtVS and Angel. Wow. This was huge, despite the fact that I didn't get into BtVS until Season 6 w/ "Once More With Feeling". These two fandoms prompted so many great discussions, not only of the episodes themselves, but of other life issues and happenings. It was a really great fandom to be in at the time. There were ups and downs and weird 'ship wars' and things, but, for the most part, it was fun times. I wrote tons of fic for these (mostly Buffy – I'm a Spike fan), but a lot of it didn’t get finished, so it's not posted. Though, one of the longest works I've ever done is posted on my website. I should also add, that the first slash piece I ever wrote was in the Buffy fandom. It was a Secret Santa gift for the btvs_santa project. I never attended any Buffy-related conventions, though a lot of the people I've met at other conventions are also Buffy fans.

Moving right along: because of Buffy fandom, I discovered The Dresden Files. Thank you so very much to the ladies at Buzzy Multimedia for organizing the first audiobook recording of "Storm Front" as read by James Marsters, b/c I would probably have completely missed this series if they hadn't. Jim Butcher is one of the most talented writers I've read in a very long time (and I'm terribly picky about what I read). Most authors don't hook me into a series, much less a book, with the opening line:

I heard the mailman approach my office door, half an hour earlier than usual. He didn't sound right. His footsteps fell more heavily, jauntily, and he whistled. A new guy.

It's not quite "The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault…" that shows up later, as far as action, but it's intriguing enough to make you want to keep reading. I breezed through the first four books and it nearly killed me to wait almost a whole year for the next one. I've been promoting the hell out of these books ever since. I've gotten several friends hooked on this series, then they discover the other series Jim writes and read that too! I even have a sub-section of my website devoted to Harry Dresden and the novels (it is in serious need of an overhaul though!).

In 2004, I attended a local convention and met Jim, his wife and Fred (the guy who runs Jim's site). Awesome folks! Now I spend time 'stalking' Jim along the lower part of the east coast – and he's totally cool with it! Hey, how can you be afraid of the people who have a pizza party in the hotel lobby, invite you along and then watch House, MD while you're eating? :)

Remember my Highlander friend? Yeah, she's partly responsible for my Hugh Jackman obsession too. She dragged me to see X-Men (I wasn't a comic book person, still not, I only read a few). The only thing I remember from that first viewing was 'Wolverine is SO cool!'. Then Van Helsing came out and that's all she wrote. Hugh Jackman is another fandom that won't leave. Don't want him too. He's amazing. I love Van Helsing and defend it. And 2006 – Hugh did something like 6 or 8 movies – starting with X3 and finishing with The Fountain.

And the most recent addition to my fandom repertoire? House, MD. This one I totally blame on ceruleanoctober . While I'm not as involved in huge discussions about the episodes and the characters like I was with BtVS and Angel, I do have interesting conversations with folks about it. I love the character interactions and most of the storylines. And how can you not love a grumpy guy like House?

Now, for the extension of my fandom activities: Role-playing. This is the online version, based mostly in LJ or sites like it. The first character I ever truly RP'd was Connor MacLeod for a Highlander RPG on Yahoo!. That was a fic-based style RPG and it went on for a good while, but died rather abruptly, though I don't really remember why. Then I got into the LJ-based RPGs.

I started off at milliways_bar with Van Helsing, soon adding Bob the Skull, Connor MacLeod, Harry Dresden, Martouf (SG-1) and Dawn Summers over the next few months. I even played MacGyver and Jarod (the Pretender) for a while, among a flurry of others – I had 10 characters there at one time. I played there for about 3 years – ups, downs, goods, bads, plots, lulls, whatever. Milliways holds a special place because I met a lot of really great people through that game, namely daniidebrabant and ceruleanoctober , which lead to meeting other folks… the list goes on. I still play at otherways - the AU version of Milliways Bar - with Van Helsing, Harry Dresden, Alexandra Cabot, Jim Ellison, Connor MacLeod and a couple others. Talk about some interesting storylines and crazy antics! :) I've joined and left games, joined games that whithered away and created a couple of my own.

Currently I play at undertherainbow , heartsandminds , worldinherhands and mcanallys_pub on InsaneJournal and at heroesque on LiveJournal – though I've never seen a single episode of Heroes. That doesn't really seem to be a problem, since the cast of House seems to have taken over the game. *g*

This one: mcanallys_pub is based in the Dresden-verse, but includes any fandom that can be feasibly worked into the Dresden world without disrupting either to the point of being unrecognizable. I created this one and while it's a rather slow crawling game, it's still a lot of fun. Plus, it's my baby!

Fandom has been a huge influence. I doubt I would have dabbled in html/css coding and very simplistic web-design without it; I wouldn't have made some really great friends and I wouldn't have met a long list of celebrity-types at one of the coolest fan-run conventions ever!

And now I’m helping with OTW archive testing when I have spare minutes and I think it's a great project that will be hugely beneficial to fandom once it's up and running!



[x-posted to LJ]

Tags: [fandom]:otw