Zenlike Immaturity: February 2011

The number of new and exciting venues of entertainment iCarly has opened up for me is staggering. I've been a superfan of various things since... well since I discovered that things exist. But I could never get into Fanfiction until now. So for no good reason I'd like to give you my thoughts on a few of the fanfics that have truly impressed me, starting with the one that was the first I successfully read, and the one which staggers me the most.

It might seem nonsensical to compose such a vast summary of a story that is itself very short. One would be expected simply to read the source material, why bother with this summary? But I feel the need to express the key points of this story in my own words, so that you may see it as I see it.

Spoiler Warning: This blog entry extensively details the plot of the fanfiction story iGo to The Beach.

iGo to the Beach

God, iGo to the Beach is a work of art. If I could get it in paperback, I would. I've considered listing it on my Facebook under "favorite books." To think that a fanfic could have caused such emotion in me, it solidified the idea in my head that fanfics can be real works and not just idle fancy.

Bittersweet reverie hangs in the air as the end of another summer looms before our beloved iCarlies. Sam and Carly are having a de facto funeral for the end of another break, the way youths often do, because the end of summer can feel more like the departure of a friend than the changing of a season. So it's a "girls' day" at the beach, no Freddie, just them.

Sam harbors a secret heartfelt love for her best-friend Carly. And though her nerves prevent any confessions on this day, she manages to steal fleeting moments of intimacy with her dear love. Carly accepts these idiosyncratic advances quizzically but without contest, with good humor, familiar as she is with Sam's every peculiar habit. They forgo the popular and crowded beaches because they want to be alone, a friendship of this caliber craves the type of unabridged synchronization that comes only with solitude.

Everything is innocent and cute and waggish, until they go for a swim and become caught in a rip-tide. The seclusion of their chosen beach now condemns them. Carly disappears into the turmoil, and Sam is dragged, screaming, against her will out of the water by onlookers who've come to the rescue. To imagine... to comprehend.... what Sam must have been feeling at that moment, to suddenly have lost Carly in the sea, to be helpless and dragged away, with no knowledge of what has happened to her bosom love... it's nearly unbearable, but terrifyingly beautiful to behold. Rescue efforts stall and the bloated corpse of Carly Shay washes ashore a few days hence. iGo to the Beach indeed.

It is at this point in the story when I felt I had been had. The kind of terror which befell me at this moment was profound, and I believed I had been set up, that a sick and twisted individual had devised this story as a means to harm me, or for the perhaps more likely motive of brutalizing iCarly. Indeed, when there exists something pure and light-hearted, some seem to delight in tearing it down and bringing it into the muck with the rest of humanity.

But eventually, I read the rest of the story, and discovered that despite its grim content it maintains the heart and soul of the source, and indeed wields brutality as a means to crafting even more beautiful warmth.

Next there's this one particular scene, barely a handful of words, that I find excruciatingly meaningful. Sam returns to the Shay's apartment, and Freddie's apartment is directly across from it, as always. Sam glances at Freddie's closed door and reminisces how Freddie won't speak to her after what happened, how he blames her for Carly's death. And it's so incredible because it means Sam has no one left.

Sam and Freddie were never bosom buddies, they were more or less held together by Carly. But there was a connection that touched beneath the surface. Despite their shared antagonism, they were close friends. If even just as an affect of sharing Carly's time and love, they came to rely on each other in subtle ways. So when Freddie turns his back on the grieving Sam, it's like she hasn't just lost her dearest friend, but all of her friends. The one other person on the whole planet that she could count on, and the only person alive who could come close to empathizing and understanding the loss of Carly, refused to commiserate, or reciprocate, or care.

So Sam is left here, the apartment with which she shared her time with Carly, the residence that was more a home to her than her mother's house ever could have been; good memories marred by grim realities. Noone left in the world, she mourns with Carly's much older brother. Petty secrets meaning very little in this shattered, post-Carly world, she confides to Spencer her true feelings for Carly. Spencer responds by showing Sam something he discovered on Carly's computer... a love note of sorts, reciprocating Sam's love in earnest.

The revelation of this mutual love is daunting, for although it is an expression of love, it adds unbearable new hardship[s to the loss of Carly. They both secretly loved each other, too timid to speak up. And that means all the lost moments... every moment they spent together in life, and every moment they could have spent together had Carly not died, could have been as lovers, and not merely friends.

Sam is overcome with the intense gloom and cries herself to sleep in Carly's bed. In the morning, she awakes, eyes still wet with tears. Only she's not alone in her bed. Carly stirs beside her. The whole nightmarish ordeal, had been just that -- a gruesome nightmare. Overcome with newfound joy and intimately aware of what she stands to lose, Sam declares her love, it is reciprocated, and Sam tells Carly that she can never, ever go to the beach.

iGo to the Beach is more of an experience than a mere read, and a fanfiction that manages the idyllic balance of sustaining the soul of the source while incorporating brave new territory.

Here's another set I'd like to see Mudcrutch play on the same proverbial tour. Obviously they would play different sets every night. But I'm really attracted to the idea of tour setlists that use the same format, just with different songs & ideas.

Like here I gave the sets the same feel and the albums similar amounts of play. Whether it's a different song from the same album in the same spot or another song that's from the same era or one with the same level of popularity, there's a lot of connections. For starters set 1 is predominantly the classics set and set 2 is the youthful jam. Had to throw a curve ball there at the end, for laughs if nothing else.

A completely unhithered set is a nice concept but I feel a tour has more 'meaning' if there is some sort of connecting thread.

Set 1

1. Strangered in the Night
2. You Got Lucky
3. Here Comes My Girl
4. Love is a Long Road
5. A Face in the Crowd
6. Crawling Back to You
7. The Dark of the Sun
8. Deliver Me
9. Change of Heart
10. California

Set 2

1. Lost Children
2. Scare Easy
3. Don't Pull Me Over
4. High in the Morning
5. Lover of the Bayou
6. Should Have Known It
7. Even the Losers
8. Girl on LSD
9. Good Enough
10. A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)

Encores

1. About to Give Out
2. When a Kid Goes Bad

3. Supernatural Radio (jam)

4. Free Fallin'

Pages

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Fanfiction Fruition

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

iCarly fans are so cool.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Mudcrutch Dream Set #2

Mudcrutch Dream Setlist