#or just anything that has my girl meryl in the equation

[itachanta]

Me with most fics and books: I'm just gonna wait till it's completed to start reading it. If not, I'll probably forget to continue it / lose interest.

Me with Trigun Vashmeryl fics: STARTING EVERYTHING I DON'T CARE I WILL RE-READ THEM A MILLION KNIVES TIMES UNTIL THEY ARE COMPLETED *screeching*

[magadauthan]

Ep 25: Live Through

@trigun98watchparty My time has come.

I watched "Live Through" in Japanese and English for this recap. For science. It's not because this is my favorite episode, no. That has nothing to do with anything.

--How did Milly and Meryl get Vash away from LR? Does 1 ile = 1 mile? Did they swipe Legato's Cinderella coach?

--that floppy hair *swoon*

--Some have criticized Meryl for ducking outside as soon as Vash begins to talk. Perhaps that is merited, and she does carry a good measure of guilt for following him, but it felt to me more like she wanted to give him space and / or privacy. Having loud emotions all over the place is frowned on in Japanese culture, and Meryl is very, very polite. Maybe she just doesn't know what to do and panics (Vash has not always been encouraging in terms of having her around, in general). Either way, it tears her up inside to hear him wailing in despair.

--Obviously Meryl has been home tending to Vash while Milly works. It's nice to see Meryl recognize that Milly is busting her butt, but she doesn't know how to address Milly's feelings, either.

--Vash should not be up and about - he's weak and feverish and not a little delirious. Good thing Milly can carry him.

--Get in there, big sis, and tell Meryl it's okay that she loves him. She's absolutely right in that Legato would have found a way to make Vash shoot him whether or not the two of them were involved. Never hold back in matters of the heart.

--My favorite scene. Meryl, alone in the light of the fifth moon, diligently mending Vash's coat. She wants to put him back together and make him whole again, even if she gets hurt in the process. She's desperately in love with him, and she holds the kind person he is close to her heart... but he was the one who put the hole in the moon. How can she reconcile that?

--Vash does look happier.

--He tries to pet the kitty, and Kuroneko gives him a swat, which some interpret as the Trigun Goddess telling Vash to get it in gear. This is incorrect. Cats are just assholes.

--It didn't stop with Legato, now, did it. Knives is pressing harder.

--"Sound Life" must be a song they teach in NML kindergarten. Many people seem to know it, including Kaite and Meryl. (the lyrics really need to scan better, it's so awkwardly phrased)

--This scene is such a tough one. It's lovely - two lovers out under the stars, right? And Meryl is so happy that Vash is considering staying with them. But it's also plain to see that he might have given up. It would be easy, wouldn't it? Let the girls take care of him while he hides. Don't do anything, and wait for an answer.

--What were you doing up so late, Meryl? (we had some ideas)

--There's no way that the townspeople could have captured someone like Vash if he hadn't let them do it. He's so broken that he won't fight back. He's a sinner now, like Knives, like Legato, beyond redemption.

Except...

...Knives assumes that Vash would sacrifice himself for everyone else. Someone else sacrificing herself for him had never been part of the equation.

--So many have stopped believing in Vash, or he thinks they have. They turn their backs on him and he accepts it as the normal course of things. Jessica's crush was childish (I was gonna marry Luke Skywalker when I was four, just saying) but even she ran away after what happened to the ship. That's why it's so important that Meryl loves him. She has made her decision, and she's steadfast in it.

--Maybe Vash doesn't realize how much she loves him until she puts herself between him and the gun, and he hears Rem's words from Meryl's mouth and sees Rem one more time. If Meryl still loves him, then Rem can still love him too. Mistakes happen but you can learn from them, and if you have the right people in your life, they will love you through your mistakes and help you to make it better.

--And finally, Vash realizes that Rem's words apply to him, too, and that he is no less deserving of a second chance and a future than any of the others he's impressed those words on. Does that make Meryl the analogue to Alex? I think it does.

--Awww, such a sweet snuggle. And then Vash has to go doof it up like normal and Meryl has to freak out like normal. It's their love language. (TBH I'd punch my husband too if he rubbed his stubbly face on me like that.)

--What happened after that? (we have some ideas)

--Vash gets ready to go. Seeing him wash up and shave is oddly pleasing, a reminder that despite his Plant-ness, he's a regular dude who has to wash his face and brush his teeth and get haircuts and have breakfast and do all that human stuff.

--Meryl wants to say something to Vash, but she's gotten wiser too. She recognizes that even though there might be a lot that she wants to tell him (and, I think, he might want to tell her too), stating her feelings in the open would be a distraction (or even a burden) he doesn't need right then. Milly is right. There will be time when he gets back.

It doesn't come through in English, but he's so gentle with her in Japanese. He knows what she wants to say. In his own way, at that time, he's saying I love you too.

--Vash takes WW with him, with Milly's love and blessing. May you go with God's protection.

[fastfishloosefish]

1, 3, 12 :]

1. What made you pick up this character?

okay before you read this answer you have to understand that moby dick is my favorite book of all time and i think about it every day of my life.

...i started thinking about it when @indomitableblackdragon showed up in group and i went "oh my god boat girls are just like in moby dick" except gabriel doesn't really have anything to do with the ocean so i'm constantly struggling to restrain myself when it comes to the amount of fish opinions gabriel has.

also i kept talking to you about potential meryl and ishmael interactions and her telling him about sand steamers and him telling her that a whale is a fish (and he loves you...)

also, most importantly, i thought it would be funny to app a guy from a 19th century american novel to an rp group.

3. What’s the best thing about the show/series/books/comics/etc.?

moby dick is a book that was written about fifty years before anyone expected anything like it could be written. modernism as a literary movement kickstarted after wwi. this was written half a century earlier, but it plays with genre, form, existentialism etc in a way that no one thought was possible before the horror and mass death of wwi seeped into the zeitgeist.

it's wild. it's a book about everything. it does it all. if you talk to me long enough you'll inevitably get hit with a "wait that's just like in moby dick" and then i'll pull up a passage from my txt of the book's full text that says exactly that.

also it's like, gorgeous. you think of melville as a boring white author and then he hits you with something like, "oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! do thou, too, remain warm among ice. do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. be cool at the equator, keep thy blood fluid at the pole. like the great dome of st. peter's, and like the great whale, retain, o man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.

but how easy and how hopeless to teach such fine things!" like, so fucking true herman

12. What would you say is the most unique trait about your character?

god this is so hard to say because ishmael takes the role of the viewer, he's melville's self insert, he's the most normal guy in the world. he's incredibly long-winded, i guess? he can talk forever about anything. he believes wholeheartedly that the whale is a fish.

[fashiontrendin-blog]

Patricia Field on What It Was Like to Style Carrie Bradshaw

http://fashion-trendin.com/patricia-field-on-what-it-was-like-to-style-carrie-bradshaw/

Patricia Field on What It Was Like to Style Carrie Bradshaw

I recently vocalized my fantasy of peeking inside the wardrobe of iconic costume designer Patricia Field, but thanks to a serendipitous email from her publicist, I ended up peeking inside something even better: her brain. We spoke on the phone for an hour about everything from Carrie Bradshaw to Carrie Bradshaw. Just kidding — we talked about other stuff too, like Miranda Hobbes, The Devil Wears Prada and ARTFASHION, an online gallery of hand-painted, one-of-a-kind clothing curated by Field. Read what she had to say below.

On How She Got Started in Costume Design

Lara Padilla ‘Princess’ Bathing suit

I opened my East Village store, Patricia Field, in the mid-60s. I didn’t get into costume design until 20 years later, when I was hired to style Diane Lane for her role in the movie Lady Beware. The director wanted a fashion-y look — something different from classical costume design. I didn’t have any experience, but everyone was very supportive. The producers liked my work and that led to another movie gig in L.A. The rest is history.

Styling on set wasn’t unlike what I did every day in my store styling customers, but I was ready for some new inspiration career-wise, and it was very good money. I was really energized by the idea of getting into a second career. The timing was right for me in a lot of ways, especially because romantic comedies were picking up steam in the movie industry and there was a big need for aspirational, positive styling, which has always been my specialty.

On Getting Hired for Sex and the City

Necklace by 1919 x Jojo Americo, Caution earrings by House of Triviál

I worked on a movie in the early 90s called Miami Rhapsody that Sarah Jessica [Parker] starred in, so that was the first time we met. A year or so later, she got the Sex and the City role. They filmed a pilot and nobody was happy with the clothes. Sarah Jessica suggested I meet Darren Star, the creator of Sex and the City, and they ended up hiring me. I made some changes to the clothes on the pilot before it got aired. The first year was good, but the show really exploded going into the second season. People loved it.

A lot of Carrie’s style was inspired by Sarah Jessica herself. As the show went on, she expressed a desire to be more designer, a little less funky. I personally believed the audience loved a high-low look — a mix of designer and vintage — because that was something new and interesting on TV and also attainable. It was more about style than fashion design — a real person’s wardrobe, but with imagination.

Sarah Jessica was the perfect person to be wearing these outfits because she sees herself as a fashionista. You can put anything on her and it looks fabulous. She knows how to move in clothes. As a costume designer, I love working with an actor who is interested in fashion. It’s like playing tennis — you want someone on the other side of the net who’s a good tennis player, otherwise there’s no game.

On Her Favorite Carrie Bradshaw Outfit

I think my favorite outfit I styled for Carrie was in the second Sex and the City movie when I put her in a “J’adore Dior” T-shirt with a long taffeta skirt. I also loved the Versace gown Carrie wore in the very last episode of the TV series, when she’s waiting for Aleksandr Petrovsky in their hotel room and she’s all dressed and gorgeous and he doesn’t show up. The dress really amped up the emotion of that scene. Costume design isn’t about selling clothes, it’s about telling a story. That’s something I learned along the way.

On Her Least Favorite Carrie Bradshaw Outfit

The show ran for six years and there were about 24 episodes a season, so that’s a LOT of outfits, but I only have one where I look at it and say, “Eh.” She was wearing a skirt and a crop top, and I threw a belt around her naked waist. Even when I did it I was hesitant, but I think Sarah Jessica liked it, so I went ahead and kept it on. But when I saw it later I thought it was just obnoxious. I should have slung the belt a little lower.

On What It Would be Like to Style Carrie in 2018

Studded Masks by StudMuffin NYC

If I were styling Carrie Bradshaw in 2018, I really feel like it would be more of the same — entertaining, aspirational, positive. Definitely not normcore [laughs]. To be honest, I feel like I’m waiting for a new dawn of imagination to happen in fashion. It’s going in all kinds of directions right now and there isn’t really a philosophy behind it. There isn’t a culture. The silhouettes are noncommittal.

In the 60s, we were literally going to the moon — it was exciting and optimistic and designers like Pierre Cardin and Rudi Gernreich captured that atmosphere in their work. The 20s were like that, too — everyone was showing off their ankles and dancing the Charleston. Today people don’t dance; they go to clubs and hang out and drink.

I am a student of history and philosophy, I get a lot of my inspiration from my knowledge of these subjects. I believe in the idea that the culture of the time, the experience of the time, is basically what creates the zeitgeist in fashion, so to speak.

On Miranda Hobbes

Miranda was the least self-consciously fashionable character in Sex and the City because she had other values. That was important, because these characters had to be real, believable, identifiable. A lot of times people would say, “She dresses the worst.” But that was her character. Through the course of the series, we got better and better at creating her look without abandoning her integrity.

I would also like to say that I am actively supporting Cynthia Nixon — who I respect and know very well — for governor. I’m going to throw her a cocktail mixer.

On Styling Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada

It was exciting. Anne Hathaway was young and willing but at the same time she had experience because she came up through Disney. She was trusting and went along with what we were doing and it allowed us to craft the image of a young girl fresh out of school who got a job she didn’t plan on. She’s not a “fashion person” at first, and that comes across in her clothes.

Getting to work with Meryl Streep was one of the big draws for me when I accepted the job. I was like, “Absolutely.” I was on cloud nine. Meryl is the ultimate professional. She knew exactly what she was doing. She was the one who came up with the idea that her character should have white hair, and I loved it, but it became an incident with the producers. They equated white hair with “old lady,” and I couldn’t convince them it was stylish. Eventually she told them she was doing white hair and that was that.

On the Biggest Style Icons of Today

I’m a big fan of Jillian Hervey from the group Lion Babe. She always looks fantastic. Also Beyoncé. She used to be a customer at my store. She would come with her mother and the Destiny’s Child girls. Jennifer Lopez, too. I recently worked with her on a movie called Second Act that’s coming out this fall.

On Following Trends vs. Trusting Her Gut

I kind of stay away from trends because I find that trends have a short life, especially in television. They make things look dated. You’ll be watching an old episode of something and go, “Oh, that’s the 90s.” That’s why I like to mix things up. All the outfits in Sex and the City were completely original — they weren’t dictated by any particular designer or trend. That’s why they still resonate decades later.

Feature image and photos by Edith Young.