To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

I wrote two of the three Cupid fics in the collection. I don't suppose this is surprising to many. ;)

What Happens in San Jose (5671 words) by icepixie
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cupid (TV 1998)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Claire Allen/Trevor Hale
Characters: Claire Allen, Trevor Hale
Additional Tags: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Original Character(s), School Reunion
Summary:

Trevor tags along to Claire's high school reunion as her totally-just-friends date. Things do not go as planned.

Love After Death (4421 words) by icepixie
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cupid (TV 1998)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Trevor Hale, Claire Allen, Champ Terrace
Additional Tags: Ghosts, Humor, Comedy, Romance
Summary:

Even the dead need a little help in the romance department. Trevor tries his hand at matching up two ghosts; Claire thinks he's even crazier than before.

"Afraid of what we'll find?"

"No, afraid of feeding into this delusional idea that ghosts exist, and especially that they can speak through a mass-produced children's toy."

Trevor put his fingers on the planchette and said, "Wait, I'm getting something." He started moving it frantically around the board, calling out the letters as he went. "C-L-A-I-R-E-I-S-A-P-A-R-T-Y-P-O-O-P-E-R."

I couldn't get anywhere on any of the fifty-nine squillion fics I'm working on, nor could I squeeze out even one line of poetry that didn't make me want to spork myself in the eye. I've read everything I have out from the library. So I wound up watching an episode of Cupid ("End of an Eros," IMO the best one), as someone has put them all up on YouTube, even the one that only aired in, like, Israel back in the day.

...Now I want fic. Fic that I haven't read. I have a feeling there isn't any. :(

( Quick reaction to this week's episode )

*

Back to The Tempest, which I have somehow managed to overlook until this point in my life. I think it's the last of the major plays that I haven't read, so I feel accomplished. Oh...wait, no, I haven't read Merchant of Venice. Although one might quibble whether that's major in the same way that, say, Hamlet or Lear or even the Henriad are.

At some point over the course of my life, I'm going to read them all. Might as well get all the use out of my Big Book O' Shakespeare as I can.

Something I forgot to mention in my last post: someone on TWOP suggested that one of the couples of the week on Cupid be made up of Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall.

That...would make me love the new version forever. I would watch all of the other episodes without whisper of complaint if they would just do that. Are you reading this, Rob Thomas/ABC?

Three things:

1. No one has written on the spectre of divorce in The Odd Women? No one? Wow.

2. This act was totally passed ten years before the book was written, and has such OBVIOUS influence on it that I can write my paper on just that factor. How has no one else written on this before?

3. MY PAPER WILL BE AWESOME!

*

The forums at TWOP tell me that Cupid came in last in the ratings last night, and lost two million people at the half-hour mark. Ouch. I guess we won't be seeing more than seven episodes...

ABC has the first ten minutes of the remade Cupid pilot up here and...oh, dear. Much of the dialogue was held over from the last incarnation, but after seeing Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall do it, it kind of sounds like these two are on Valium. They perked up a bit at the end, especially Bobby Cannavale, but...I have a bad feeling about this. I hope I'm just judging them too harshly against their antecedents, and they'll settle in better as the new series diverges more from the old one.

I found this from the Futon Critic on the script for the pilot of the new Cupid. Apparently Felix and Lita are siblings, so I guess my speculation for them in the last post I made about this show can be thrown out. Oops. And I guess the location has been definitively changed from LA to NYC, since "covering up the Hollywood sign" has transformed into "fiddling with the New Year's ball drop" in the trailer.

I want mooooaaar publicity stuff for this show. Even if it's weird not having Piven and Marshall in it, I'm way excited. You should all watch it. Hopefully it will be almost as good as and last longer than the original.

(Also, you know how this should would have been perfectly scheduled? Next to Pushing Daisies. Dammit.)

And, in related news of the odd, Jeremy Piven has to leave Speed the Plow because of mercury poisoning. Ouch.

Things have been happening with the new Cupid! I, being in a grad school haze for the past four months, had not been paying much attention, but IMDB has, and here is a summary of/reaction to all the news:

- The pilot premieres on Tuesday, March 24th at 10/9 Central on ABC.

- There are 21 photos up there, and may I just say it is very strange to see what is obviously the singles group set with all different people in it.

- In the pictures, Bobby Canavale doesn't look as puckish at Jeremy Piven, but perhaps the camera just didn't capture his particular brand of Trevor's madcapness.

- Can't tell much about how Sarah Paulson's Claire is going to work out, but again, odd to see her there when the last time I saw her was ten years ago on Jack & Jill.

- There are two supporting characters, "Felix" and "Lita." From the pictures, I think they might have split up Champ's role, giving the coworker half to Lita and the roommate half to Felix, but that's just speculation. Lita, at least, appears to work in the bar. (My other bit of speculation is that there will be at least a season-long attempt by Trevor to get them together, and then they will be the show's beta cople.)

- Apparently one couple of the week will bond over karaoke. Oh, I can't wait. < / sarcasm >

ETA: And there is a trailer! So, so weird to hear lines from the original pilot coming out of new people's mouths. (And they changed their last names? Weird.) It looks altogether more slick than the original, but that could be because it's, y'know, presented as a movie trailer, with the movie voiceover guy and everything. It looks good so far...

GIP!

Well, actually, it's not so gratuitous. I've finally finished the Cupid/due South crossover! It should be ready to post soon, if I can find a beta or two. Hint, hint. (I'm actually looking for fans of one but not the other, because I've never written a crossover before and I'm not sure how well I did at explaining the bare bones of the two universes. Well, actually, most of the explaining went into the Cupidverse, because let's face it, there are probably two hundred dS fans for each Cupid fan out there, alas.)

Wow, I haven't posted in a week. I R boring.

Yay, it's the weekend! Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get as much work done on my Cupid/dS fic done as I did last Sunday, when I wrote 1,100 words in one afternoon/evening. (Sadly, in the 4.5 days since then, I've written, er, 400.)

Shut up, 1,000+ words in a single day is a great figure for me, at least since I left college. (Hmmm. Note to self: Find job that includes writing of more than just e-mails.)

I watched a couple episodes of Cupid the other day so that I could get Trevor's voice back in my head. (Of course, now the trick may be getting him to leave...) Every time I watch one of these episodes--and I've seen each of them at least three times now--all I can think is, "ABC! You foolish fools! How could you not see the AWESOMENESS of this show??? In addition to the fabulous premise, I'm worried that my computer screen is going to burst into flame from the UST whenever Paula Marshall and Jeremy Piven are onscreen together!"

Sigh.

*

I think, after nearly three years, I'm in need of a new mood theme. I enjoy the heck out of my Wonderfalls theme, but it might be time to move on to another fandom. Anyone got links for shareable due South or Slings & Arrows themes? Although I'm thinking about making the S2 DVDs of S&A my response to my mother's question of whether I could buy something from Amazon to help her get up to $25 (and thus free shipping) on her order, so I could just make my own, I suppose. Hmmm.

*

Random linkies: Mini student documentary on Centralia, PA from YouTube. It's very cool. Check it out.

The Tennessean has put up several hundred Nashville photos from the past century here. I imagine most of you will have no interest, but I thought I'd put it up for the two flisters I have who are from here. It's rather fascinating to watch the city I know take shape over the years--as well as to see what was there before I was around. I find the way the utility poles have multiple crossbars--to support the now unheard-of telegraph wires and/or power lines for the electric trolleys, which have now been replaced with busses--up until the 50s or 60s to be very cool.