Buffy readthrough

[helenic]

On Saturday we had the Buffy readthrough organised and hosted by smhwpf, which was enormous fun. Pure, unadulterated self-indulgence, but that didn't matter because we weren't inflicting it on any audience, we were just all indulging together. We read Prophesy Girl, Becoming I and 2, The Zeppo, some excerpts from Spiral and The Weight of the World, The Gift, excerpts from Bargaining 1 and 2, and Once More With Feeling. The best bits included:

- the many varied portrayals of Buffy, from the taking-herself-too-seriously the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh (Elly) to snappish, somewhat confused, frustrated-with-the-world (Catriona), to stubborn, compassionate, stupid self-sacrifice (Yves). And my Valley Girl, which was fun (although admittedly a somewhat dislocated, bleak Valley Girl in OMWF. With silly songs). It really brought out the development - and inconsistency - of the character throughout the series, and helped to vary the mood and pace considerably.
- Eddy, Sam's dad, who cooked a fantastic curry and played a very powerful Whistler and General Gregor.
- weaselspoon's Xander in The Zeppo. "Right. Bombs. Wow, I can't believe I had sex. No! No. Must think about the bombs!" Particularly the scene with Faith (elise). Mmm.
- the narration for The Zeppo (by romauld and smhwpf), which really came together; it was fast, funny, original, and very suited to the mood. We did end up concentrating quite a lot on the angsty season-finale side of Buffy, and it was good to get the humour in there, because Joss' one-liners are one of my favourite things about the series.
- the_alchemist as Glory, who managed without having ever watched Season 5 to be both scarier and better looking than Clare Kramer.
- leonato as Sweet in OMWF. In fact the whole of OMWF, which was just so much fun. Particularly indebted to mirabehn's bass playing, which pretty much kept the whole thing together.

Oh and I got to play Vamp Willow. I can't believe they let me! I loved every second of it. And dextress was fantastic as Willow in that episode. Fun. Funfunfun. Here are some photos by evil_nick:


"You. I don't like you."


"Bitch ... !"


"This world's no fun ..."

(more here.)

Afterwards there was an excellent party, involving singing the opening speech of Richard III to the tune of the can-can, complete with dance, performing the Richard and Anne scene in Richard III in the style of the Clangers, much telling of bad jokes, a foot massage "orgy" which somehow developed into a foot-led rendition of the Timewarp, and a rather excellent game of non-word Scrabble:


The non-word Scrabble game of DOOM!

Non-word Scrabble is a game best played drunk. You are not allowed to make any word which actually exists, but the words you make have to be convincing, and if challenged a definition is required. We employed fluffymark as judge, who on several occasions rejected words derived from Welsh because they didn't contain any Ls.

svinndbi: (noun) a type of small yellow fish occuring on the Norwegian coast
liphontsvinndbi: (noun) a parasite which only feeds on svinndbi fish (there was a small disputation about whether this word requires a hyphen, but in the end this version was passed. I remain unconvinced.)
gielorey: A Scottish toast or greeting.
lanckgugielorey: the above on an occasion of particular drunkenness
zuonical: (adj) sort of like alive
ezuonical: (adj) the opposite
lerbunt: (verb) to propel a canal barge by paddling with one's feet.
CETA: a toast used among thespian circles, derived from the acronym 'Come every theatrical arse'. Now definitely a word in its own right.
ut: the sound someone makes when you hit them in the gut
zeaser: (verb) to rip out someone's rib cag, "he zeasered his enemy".
lotrimer: (noun) a polymer-like substance made out of characters from the Lord of the Rings.
yeaiou: (verb) to make a sound of feline exclamation
goedegyt: (noun) a testosterone-induced feeling of happy recklessness upon seeing a pretty woman, particularly when inebriated

I'm not sure about the others, which is a bit poor because both quoajets and padoxefa were played by me and strongtrousers. Any contributions?

Comments

[oxfordgirl.livejournal.com]

*grin*

I think you're great but your tagging is awful. :D

[libellum.livejournal.com]

pfft. That'll teach me not to preview first. Sorted now.

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

"The Zeppo" has always been one of my favourite episodes. In fact I have a bit of a thing about all the episodes that focus strongly on Zander.

Perhaps Cordy sums it up in "I Only Have Eyes For You"

'Overidentify much?'

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Heh. I don't see why - I mean your tastes run to the geeky (all good as far as I'm concerned) but you have neither Xander's social ineptitude nor verbal diarrhoea. At least he has a habit of pulling exceptionally hot women :)

Whenever I find myself identifying with aspects of Buffy characters (like Anya with her unsavoury preoccupations and inappropriate comments, or Season 6 Buffy with the sense of not belonging to the world, and not having a clue what she wants) I end up being depressed by two things: they have much better reasons to be that way, and they're way more attractive than me. Bah!

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

That's an absolutely spiffykeen Scrabble variation. Whoohoo!

Zeaser should absolutely be a word.

And incidently:

and they're way more attractive than me

The hell they are!

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Didn't padoxefa have something to do with prostitutes?

I was dozing on the sofa but I did overhear various things and ISTR that being one of them.

I think liphontsvinndbi is my favourite word. Yay! for it.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

*agrees, especially with the "incidentally" bit*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

liphontsvinndbi is so satisfying to pronounce :)

the original attempt on that turn was pfaedoxa, a scornful Welsh bar wench, but it was disallowed for not having any Ls in it. ISTR padoxefa having something to do with either chemicals or feet...?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Oh, rubbish. :) Sarah Michelle Gellar and Emma Caulfield may not be my type, but they're gorgeous and have absolutely fantastic figures. As well as wonderful hair. I know they have the benefit of make-up artists, wardrobe, lighting etc, but come on, there's no contest. I appreciate the compliment, and thankyou for it, but you're being daft :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

you're very sweet to say so, but you're talking nonsense :)

I was really hoping that wouldn't be read as a fishing-for-compliments because I was trying to make a point. pfft!

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Gluh. Even without taking into account the fact that you are (in my eyes, at least, and I'm sure I'm not alone here) very beautiful indeed, I don't find either of them attractive at all. Their gorgeousness is of a particularly showy type that's only interesting to look at for a few minutes, and I ceased to notice it years ago.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Your point is made, but our retort is still valid; do not dismiss us as compliment fish!

(okay, I think I just wanted to use the phrase "compliment fish")

[libellum.livejournal.com]

*sticks tongue out*

*hugs you*

... compliment fish!!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

like I said, they're not my type. But, oh, I don't know. Maybe I just have thin envy. And although I wouldn't want to look like her or sleep with her, there's something compelling about SMG's eyes. The way she looks in Bargaining ... I suppose having just done the readthrough and then watching it last night, comparison was natural. And comparison of self with TV actresses is rarely favourable.

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you've only met me annihilated, or at my 1337357

[libellum.livejournal.com]

"annihilated"?

I suppose the point I was making was: I sympathise with the identification, particularly the identification with the flawed bits of TV characters (making them imperfect in real ways being generally appealling). I have, indeed, only met you a couple of times and maybe you're right. But maybe you're being paranoid, and at least if the things you identify with Xander for are true of you, you manage to hide them far better than he does :)

[translucent.livejournal.com]

That's a shockingly accurate vampWillow pout in the last non-Scrabble picture. I tried to initiate a non-word Scrabble game once a while ago, but quickly lost interest under the influence of the amazingly nice hash brownies last_dance'd produced. Clearly I need to know more geeks.

I still can't quite get the Richard III to fit to the cancan :)

[nightkitchen.livejournal.com]

the expression on your face in photo #3 is priceless!

looks like fun.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Some sort of strange metamorphosis took place with the vampWillow. I mean my hair looks much more red in those photos than it actually is. Weirdness. Personally I blame the lipstick.

I'd never successfully played non-word Scrabble before either. I can't remember who told me about it (damn, I just lost the Game!). It's great because you get to do satisfying things like use all the triple word scores and fill up the sides of the board, and also because everyone's playing 7-letter words you get through the tiles much faster, so the game is over reasonably quickly.

Mmmmmhash brownies. Not much chance of those with this lot, they're all terrifyingly well behaved :)

And it so fits! Until you get to the next bit of the tune, at least - then it falls apart a bit.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Well, I hear you on thin envy. *wry gryn* Still cannot find SMG at all compelling, though. Particularly not when compared to Alison Hannigan.

And yes, comparison of self with TV actresses--or their parts--is bad, even if it is somewhat inevitable. =)

I don't usually have a type so much as an anti-type as regards physical beauty. The range of people I find attractive is pretty broad, whereas those who I don't consider attractive generally fall into a few particular categories. Personality trumps all, but there SMG fails again, frankly; Buffy irritates me, and what little I know of SMG doesn't attract either. So it goes.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I like that photo :) And it was so much fun. Daft and self-indulgent, but funnnn.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I used to feel exactly the same way. My liking of the Buffy character is a source of great annoyance to me. It's a limited and irritating well, and I think she does it well. And as I said, she doesn't appeal personally. I just - how can I articulate it? - I wish that when I was playing Buffy my eyes went that big, and I could do the "vulnerable" look that well.

But yes, compared to characters I actually fancy (of which there are many), or would like to look like (of which there are very few) she's nothing special.

[akonken.livejournal.com]

That looks/sounds like so much fun! You do a good job of Willow's mannerisms too (at least when the camera's around...).

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was :)

And thankyou! I photograph so inconsistently, which is why I was particularly pleased with these ... vampWillow isn't particularly hard to imitate though. I had no truck at all with Buffy. Either way mimickry is far easier than, you know, actually acting ;)

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

You are too kind. I suspect that the 'confused, frustrated-with-the-world' might have been more Catriona than Buffy though...

Your Vamp Willow was indeed wondrous.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

*also agrees with the incidentally bit*

[oakwonder.livejournal.com]

quoajets: low-albedo dust blown from the surface of trans-Neptunian objects by the solar wind.
bwarwiva: a kind of rum punch made by Tanganyikan cannibals with flavourings of pineapple and bone marrow.
ophymecs: fish eyes in aspic, esteemed a delicacy by the Paphlagonians.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Youv'e played this before! *grin*

Bwarwiva was the_alchemist's, and something to do with an African tribe. Something to do with holes in the ground perhaps. My memory is blurred by the vast amounts of red wine.

"fish eyes in aspic": influenced by King Crimson at all?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

perhaps a bit of both. But you were neither confused nor frustrated (well, maybe a little bit frustrated) as Cordelia or Glory, so I'm sure it was acting as well as good casting :) I liked your Buffy very much. Nothing like the show, but that's not at all a bad thing.

[loveitorshoveit.livejournal.com]

padoxefa: a small box for storing inedible cakes before disposal.

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

Mmmm...... Evil willow!


(Hi - 'tis Toby here, just adding you on LJ..)