The Band Gazebo

3 What was your first fandom love(s)? Your first ship(s)?

See, I've been into shows and shipping since before I knew what fandom was so I find this hard to answer. But the first show and ship that I really, I suppose fell head over heels for was Fame, which was the show of my youth that I rediscovered as a teen. That was when I discovered Reggie Higgins (who is female, despite the name, played by Carrie Hamilton) and Ian Ware, played by Michael Cerveris, later to become famous in fandom as The Observer in Fringe. (see icon) Reggie was a performance artist whose independent spirit often led her into trouble, while Ian was an exchange student from London who was an amazing guitarist. If you want to know why I shipped them, one clip will answer it - behold.



Need I say more? It still kills me that they never officially got together (even if the episode Stradi-various,where she wishes him to be more romantic on a magic violin (it was Fame season 6, they often did the wacky) and he did, not because the violin was magic but because he knew it was important to her) even if one of the executive producers, in an interview with Fame Forever, says that had they got a season seven, they probably would have.

4 Share your favorite stories (with links!) from your first fandom love(s)/ship(s). Tell us why you still love them.

See, this is the problem with the above - the Fame fandom is tiny and when it comes to fic, tinier still. And reccing my own stuff is not the done thing. So I'm going to go to a different fandom and point out that this is my first online fandom, as in I wrote fic for it and put it online and other people were doing the same thing!

It's Stargate SG1 and controversially, I was a Sam/Daniel shipper. I say that because Sam/Jack was the dominant ship, but I never really had a choice because the first episode I saw was Holiday... Sam at Daniel's bedside, telling him, "You can't die on me now" thinking he's asleep and he says, "It's nice to know you don't just like me for my looks". I thought they were an item, was shocked when they weren't!

It's taken a bit of searching to find these, but I have found links to an archive I thought long dead!

Mended by Cagey - a retelling of the back end of the third season, developing Sam and Daniel's relationship.

Statistical Outliers by CL Kamnikar - Sam making sense of her relationship with Daniel. Great Sam POV and insight.

Sotto Voce by Trendicide - character study, Daniel POV and a moment near the end that would make Jerry Maguire proud.

Campfire Questions, Three in the Morning Talks by Perri Smith - Sam and Daniel around a campfire.

And it's a crying shame but I can't find any more of them... the problem is I'm going back to 2001 here and lots of us used individual fic archives on geocities/topcities/angelfire, all of which are dead and gone now. But there was more stuff by Trendicide and stuff by Sandra and so much good stuff that I can't find now! Not even a google of the 2001 Captain Doctor Awards can help!

This is why I'm now backing up everything to AO3, even though it's ever so slow going!

I found today while searching a a Ship Manifesto for them which is worth a read.

But yeah. Sam/Daniel. Love it.

So, the Fame rewatch continues apace, with episodes watched over the weekend and today...

( 6x07 A Different Drummer )

( 6x21 Reggie and Rose )

( 6x14 Pros and Cons )

( 6x11 Go Softly into Morning )

So, Himself is at work, and I'm recovering from my night out last night (alas, not of the alcohol related woes; however, it was the first time that the staff noticed that I'm getting slightly bump-a-licious, and all were impressed that I lasted until half one in the morning. Go me.)

What to do on such a day?

I look at some of season 6 of Fame! Yippee!

And since it's me, I don't do these things in chronological order, oh no. What would be the sense in that?

First up was the bit of All Talking, All Singing, All Dancing, where Reggie and Ian sing It's Love I'm After, After All - quality is stupendous, files are huge and the clip is as dotey as I remember. This is why I ship them!

Reggie: Oh, that was hokey.
Ian: Quite trite.
Reggie: Hopelessly over-sentimental.
Ian: Completely disgusting. (sniffs) Want to run through it again?
Reggie: Yeah.

Then it was on to Stradi-Various where I did not look at the whole ep, because really, a magic violin that grants wishes? It was right up there with the horse running through the school. That said, the Reggie/Ian stuff is still comedy gold, and I love how Reggie goes from all "I want a bit of romance" to being all "It's too much!" The bit where Ian gives her the rose on the street remains my favourite bit, closely followed by the bit where she's awfully rude to him and he blows up at her... proof positive, at last, that IMO he's as mad about her as she is about him, it's just harder for him to say it.

Reggie: Ian, do you ever get the urge to, I don't know, maybe do something nice for a girl for a change? You know like bring her flowers, candy or something?
Ian: Oh, you mean, whisper sweet nothings into her ears?
Reggie: Yeah.
Ian: Not bloody likely.
Reggie: Yeah, you're right. Just a silly thought anyway. I was just kidding.

After that, the first full ep I watched was Ian's Girl - where his old band and old flame come for a visit. Loved it just as much this time around. No Feelings still reminds me of Exquisite Corpse from Hedwig (I remember saying as such in the Embankment 8 years ago and Nora had no clue what I was talking about!) and After Dark is what made me fall wholesale in love with Michael's voice, because it shows off that the man can sing.

Also noticed something interesting...it never made sense to me that in episode 16, Stradi-Various, he's chasing after Reggie like a man possessed (literally!), while in episode 18, this one, he's all hung up on Joanna and declaring undying love for her, and even when it's obvious Reggie is crazy about him, he still can't see it. Except that seeing the clips back to back, in Stradi-Various, Reggie tells him they've been going out to the movies for 8 months; in Ian's Girl, Joanna makes the comment that when she leaves, she's going to miss him all over again, just like she did 6 months ago. Which I'm taking in my head to mean that SV was supposed to air after IG and that somehow the order got switched around... in my own personal canon, Joanna came to visit before the whole magic violin thing! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Besides, he stayed at the school because of what she said to him!

Just now finished watching The Last Dance - aka, the one where Nicole and Jesse break up. Man, was that ever a depressing hour of tv. Can understand why Nicole broke up with him, what with the way that he spoke to/about her at the start, though I can't help but think that it would have been stronger if we'd seen her discontent over a couple of episodes; then again, Fame was never really an arc show. (cf Reflections, season four, where Holly develops anorexia, collapses, is hospitalised and cured all inside 45 minutes, with no build up whatsoever.) Enjoyed the scene with Leroy and Nicole dancing together crazily as he tries to cheer her up; they remain my little cracktastic ship.

The Jillian/Danny subplot was cute, but again with the lack of an arc, did they ever date again after she stood up to her dad and brothers???

Have to decide now what episode to look at next... it may be A Different Drummer for the Reggie stuff in it... I'm waiting a little while to look at All I Want for Christmas (where the Leroy/Nicole is strong!) because there's something about being able to title a post "Christmas in July" that just tickles me! It will have to wait for tomorrow though...can barely keep my eyes open!

My Fame season 6 download is currently sitting at 99.7%, with 3 hours or so to go. It's been at 96-odd % and rising since Sunday, and crawling upwards.... I have hope people, I have hope!

Further to my rec of a couple of days ago (yesterday?) -- yahtzee63 has all 3 parts of Break up. And it is awesome

Break Part One Part Two Part Three - Star Trek XI, Spock/Uhura, the epic fic of how they got together.

Also, good news bad news. Fame Seasons 1 and 2 being released - yay to that. Date is Sept 15th. However, and I quote, Seasons 1 & 2 will come to a 7-disc set on September 15th. The cost will be $39.98 SRP in the USA, and CA$54.98 SRP in Canada. Running time is 1192 minutes, and the first 4 discs in the 7-disc set will be single-sided, containing the first season's 16 episodes. Then remaining 3 discs are double-sided, containing the 22 episodes from the show's second season (there were six seasons in all).

Of course, I already have the first season, but I can buy them again if it means I get the second! Also the mention of 6 seasons in all fills me with hope.

It's the Holy Grail!!! *squeee*

YouTube link to the final ever five minutes of the television show Fame... with most (the link says all, it's not!) of the Kids from Fame returning for the end... a huge party, they all sing Fame getting a line each, and all the crew are put in front of the camera, and the final dolly shot is cooler than even I remembered it, as I think TCC pulled out early in the 1990s... oh, so totally made of awesome that clip is, I want to marry it and call it George.