Welcome to This Week in Fandom, the OTW’s roundup of things which are happening! First, a small format change to TWIF for now, since the broader entertainment world is on hiatus: we’re going to be featuring more recommendations and events from around the internet as we all spend more time at home. There may be only so much Netflix you can watch, but fandom is full of things to create and participate in. Feel free to tell us about cool fandom things that are happening in the comments!
First up, a handy primer for all the apps, services, and ways people are hanging out over the internet: Aja Romano’s Vox article From Netflix Party to Zoom: The internet apps getting us through quarantine, which is full of links and ideas. Eventbrite is growing in popularity, with its landing page now full of virtual events you can attend online, from yoga classes to concerts to art classes. Your blogger has always wanted to learn to draw well enough to make fanart – if you’ve always been in awe of the talented vidders, podficcers, writers, fanartists and other creatives in our community, now could be the time to give it a try!
Meanwhile on reddit, the internet has been obsessed with this /r/relationships thread about a man who’s unexpectedly fallen in love with his husband:
https://twitter.com/mynameiskeely/status/1241898398124408832
The whole amazing tale unfolded over several days on reddit, and while the resemblance to a fake marriage AU might be striking, it’s worth remembering that cliches exist for a reason, truth is stranger than fiction, and these (probably) real people deserve to be treated respectfully while we all cry about love being real after all.
And finally, Animal Crossing: New Horizons had the best possible release timing. Even if you don’t have a switch, the internet is full of livestreams, and twitter is full of screencaps and designs. Wholesome ‘Animal Crossing’ tweets are a public service writes Jess Joho, providing us with basically an article of curated Animal Crossing tweets. More of this sort of thing please, journalism! Keeping with the Animal Crossing theme, people are getting incredibly creative with the custom design and pixel art parts of the game:
Me: I am not that serious about video games.
Nintendo: Here is a small canvas for you to design
Me:#AnimalCrossing pic.twitter.com/mvcMfzJdRQ
— Elisa Ting-Yi Chang (@Chang_ElisaTY) March 21, 2020
I’m getting a little out of control when it comes to my #AnimalCrossing custom designs. Here are my Captain America and Winter Soldier dresses. Because I can. pic.twitter.com/GP8dfmDcy9
— Stephanie Lea | She/Her 🏳️🌈♿️ (@StephanieLeaPNW) March 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/casper_aron/status/1242544518005571584
That’s it for this week! We’ll keep you updated on more fandom and online events over the coming weeks. If you’re getting into a new part of fandom creativity or learning a new skill, tell us about it in the comments! Your blogger ordered a better microphone and is getting properly into podficcing. Is there an event for that yet?