[BtVS/AtS] VID: Origin Stories by Gianduja Kiss

[thuviaptarth]

Vid Title: Origin Stories
Song: "Coffee" by Aesop Rock feat. John Darnielle
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel

Summary: It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat.

Download/streaming information at GK's lj.

Notes: Storyboard and editing by giandujakiss.
Commissioned and conceived by thuviaptarth for Sweet Charity.
Beta by counteragent, boniblithe, sol_se, etothey, and springgreen.

Lyrics
we don't need no walkie-talkies, nope, no walkie talkies
we don't need your coughing when offing the morning coffee, no
we don't need no walkie-talkies, nope, no walkie-talkies
we just want our hermitry to stay and our coffee to go

and the last shall be
first to immerse in the pass-out heat,
face in the mud where the moxie melt
'til he woke up drowning in tchochke hell
war [more?] in a cave with a torch on the wall
then [than?] a window arrangement of porcelain dolls
on a brand new day saw what he saw
property owners who crawl to the mall
with a bad toupee and a face
like you author the law
face like you're mourning a loss
right hand on a can of worms
left full of gold he will trade for turf
i mean that's okay, you got to answer to you at the end of the volatile day
but a model of mercy and might? no way,
marionette who will clap and obey
dude, look, all that noise? call that flight of the water boys,
meet and greet and they all slap five
cheek to cheek when they colonize
and a grown-ass man shall abide as he wish,
walk that path with a dime and a stick,
walk that path with a diamond and wine,
walk that path to the firing line, just walk,
pay no mind to the new recruit with the play-doh spine,
let's be friends from opposite ends, wave to the kid,
don't hop on the fence,
play to the radius far and away, orbit wide
don't park in his space,
one little martyr who talk in his face
make one little Weatherman sharpen the blades.

we don't need no walkie-talkies, nope, no walkie talkies
we don't need your coughing when offing the morning coffee, no
we don't need no walkie-talkies, nope, no walkie-talkies
we just want our hermitry to stay and our coffee to go

and the last shall be
first to the curb with the mad-cow meat,
face in the bars of a regular cell when he woke up high in collectible hell,
boomtown kid who was taught by the binge
that the man who expires with the most shit wins,
that's warpy american nonsense penned by the rich,
not a routine friend in a pinch,
still not used to the stench,
how it throws off otherwise lucid events,
in the case the afraid observe i got a pro-keds box full of layman's terms,
it goes hey, peace, pray for the plagued, major relief from capacious rains,
but just cuz i don't want to war with you,
it don't mean go warm up the barbecue,
i'm like, pardon you, sawed-off limit,
my high noon is a quick little minute,
i don't wanna spend it sitting with a critic
who simply isn't gonna ever really get it,
this HQ is alive and alone,
no driveway, no sign of a home, no dial tone, no line for the phone,
no world's tiniest violin song,
and i might just lie to them all,
lying in the morgue with a deep breath hiding and bored, fighting a smile, highly annoyed,
when the timing is right i will rise and record,
call for the monster beats and blockhead
got animal drums like he's doctor teeth,
it goes red light green light 1 2 3, one large coffee, fuck you, peace.

T-A-K-E-N-O-P-R-I-S-O-N-E-R-S

john darnielle:
i crawled down to the basement when the weather got cold, like a lost lamb returning to the fold, and when the outside world recedes from view, it's just a year's supply of make-up and memories of you, 1967, colt 45, holding back the vampires, keeping me alive, there's an envelope with some cash in it out by the front door, this is what they make you take the medication for


I gave giandujakiss a song, a summary line, two very long emails about the conceptual basis of the vid, four or five lyric matching suggestions, and a ton of headaches during the beta process. She made a vid that did everything I wanted but even better. It was like all the fun parts of writing a story without any of the hard parts, and she never once complained about the Sweet Charity story I owed her, already three months overdue. It was AWESOME.

I am being all quiet and restrained because I love the vid so much I'm almost exploding with it. But what I want to say most is: GO WATCH IT NOW NOW NOW. PLEASE.

Comments

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Robin Wood was in some ways, I think, an attempt to redress BtVS' racial problems, and his story isn't as completely bleak as the moment we chose to end on: he survives! He makes it through the final battle, he has sex with Faith (I, personally, think that is always a plus), he does get to be a hero and competent and cool. But--Spike wins that fight and Spike is still wearing Nikki's coat. I can't tell you how much I hated it every time it seemed like BtVS or AtS was going to force Spike to shed that coat, and every time he put it back on. Or I can tell you, and that's the vid.

Dana, too, doesn't end exactly there. After Angel, Spike, & Wesley capture her, she is seized by a group of new Slayers, who take her off to care for her. At the time, I had issues with this plot development but in retrospect I am very, very happy with it.

But again -- Spike puts the coat back on. I had some second thoughts, during the vid-making process, about what it meant to end on such a bleak moment, about making the story a tragedy instead of a compromised triumph, and I decided that was the story I wanted to tell because I was angry and I didn't want that outrage to be ignored because of a partial later victory.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

Thank you for expanding on your inspiration for the vid. It is fascinating.

Or I can tell you, and that's the vid.

Yup--loud and clear! :D

[(Anonymous)]

counteragent and untrue-accounts - there's been so much awesome commentary on "Origin Stories," even at a casual glance, so I'm editing my halfamoon rec post to link to your comments in this thread. Thanks for your insightful thoughts!

ticketsonmyself (logging in?)

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! Your enthusiasm for the vid makes me very happy. :)

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

But again -- Spike puts the coat back on. I had some second thoughts, during the vid-making process, about what it meant to end on such a bleak moment, about making the story a tragedy instead of a compromised triumph, and I decided that was the story I wanted to tell because I was angry and I didn't want that outrage to be ignored because of a partial later victory.

Every time I watch the vid, the energy and the motion and the anger catch me again and sweep me up, and I think, THIS TIME, this time it'll be different! And then it ends with Spike putting on that fucking coat again.

I think it works for the vid. It *should* make the vid-watcher sit up in their chair and protest "No, it can't end like that!" and feel angry and grim and sad. Because the clips that might have fixed this vid *aren't in the source*, and that realization-- the slow realization, once you've seen it, that there wasn't any other way it *could* end, that the vid has to end the way the show did-- with the same *focus*-- is harsh. And powerful.

A vid about these particular characters and issues that wasn't bleak... would be constructed reality, not critique. *wry grin*