Hello all! This week we have articles on vinyl albums, a Pitt/Star Trek crossover event, and Gav’s interview with The Vampire Lestat’s production designer, plus Fansplaining’s first book excerpt, from Ilana Masad’s book on The Bachelor. And on the fanworks side, we’ve got ATLA fanart, multifandom time-travel fic recs, and more! — Elizabeth

new stuff

“A pressing issue: why are vinyl albums becoming so different from their digital versions?” by Adam Benzine at The Guardian
Echoing a frustrating issue in the videogame industry, where digital downloads often include updates and bug fixes that aren’t available in disc format, music fans are pushing back against vinyl releases that don’t include the supposedly “final” track listing.

“Noah Wyle & Katherine LaNasa To Help Celebrate Writers Guild Foundation’s 60th Anniversary With ‘Star Trek’ Table Read” at Deadline
Cast members from The Pitt are performing a table read of the original (Kirk and Spock) Star Trek pilot, and it’s going to stream live online!

“Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation” at The Onion
The Odyssey discourse reaches its logical endpoint.

Isekai as a genre is exploding in popularity because it appeals to a universal desire to get hit by a truck rather than live in the 21st century.

— The Emotion Engine (@emotion-engine.bsky.social) July 31, 2026 at 9:12 AM

new stuff: fansplaining

“The Bachelor and the Fantasy of Performance” by Ilana Masad
“No matter how curated, packaged, and scripted the narratives on our screens are, the process of creating The Bachelor and its offshoots is, truly, a social experiment.” This week, Fansplaining published its first book excerpt, an essay from novelist and critic Ilana Masad, the co-editor of Here For All the Reasons: Why We Watch The Bachelor.

“Inside The Vampire Lestat’s Brilliant Production Design” by Gav
Gav interviewed TVL’s production designer Andres Cubillan this week, discovering a whole new level of thoughtful background detail for Lestat’s tour bus, his childhood home, the Fang Gang murder basement, and much more.

On a similar note, Gav also interviewed the show’s costume designer Lex Wood for TV Guide! Wood has already spoken a lot about Lestat’s rock star makeover, but this interview shared more insight into costumes from later in the season—including how some characters’ fashion choices drop subtle hints toward season 4. (Also... the fan theories about Armand and Alex’s bracelets were correct!)

PIZZA HISTORIAN WATCHING “MYSTIC PIZZA”: I don’t even know where to begin. I would be ashamed to serve these pizzas.

— Stella Sacco (@antlervel.vet) July 27, 2026 at 2:46 PM

older stuff

“How Yuri!!! On Ice Reawakened Figure Skating Fandom In Us” by Ginnis Tonik at Women Write About Comics
In time for the show’s tenth anniversary celebrations: A roundtable conversation with YoI fans who rediscovered figure skating fandom through the show.

tumblr & beyond

Avatar: The Last Airbender fanart by aisatsaa

“I started rereading moby dick recently and upon rereading my fic u can tell exactly when I did”

cutiemark discrimination AU

plato’s blorbo cave.

PSA: the entirety of Yuri on Ice is available for free on YouTube this month, in celebration of the show’s tenth (!) anniversary.

keeping this in mind re: the launch of the new women’s pro baseball league

fanfiction

Time travel, time loops, and general time shenanigans (the latter must have been my specific wording in my call for recs, since quite a few people put this in the notes of their submissions haha). Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec! — Elizabeth

“a step to the right” by cloudsurfing. 76K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Heated Rivalry; Ship: Shane/Ilya
Recced by: wood_sparks
Backstory: This refreshingly different time loop fic explores how Shane and Ilya would figure out the magnitude of their feelings for each other, if the main catalysts that got them together in canon (Rose, Scott’s coming out) never happened, and Tuna Melt Day happened over and over instead?
Rec: The author’s profound understanding of the characters took me on an epic, gratuitous emotional journey. This is one of those fics that make you go, “I can't believe I got to read this piece of absolute ART for free.”
Content warnings: N/A

“forever is a feeling” by infrequency. 48K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Seventeen; Ship: Jeonghan/Seungcheol
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Inspired by The Seven Year Slip, forever is a feeling positions SVT member Jeonghan as a jaded ex-idol who starts to fall for an unexpected roommate… an idol named Seungcheol, who lives seven years in the past.
Rec: Funny and with a lot of heart, forever is a feeling is about expectations and growing as a person… and how time may carry on, but people remain the same at their core.
Content warnings: Temporal age gap, brief mention of homophobia

“Time After Time” by Welfycat. 404K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: CSI; Ship: Gil Grissom/Sara Sidel
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Gil Grissom, team lead of the Vegas CSIs, is trapped in a Groundhog Day style time loop. Set shortly after season 5, he grapples with the changes in his team, and the changes in his feelings for Sara.
Rec: I’m a sucker for Groundhog Day loops and procedural crime dramas and enjoy the balance between solving crime.
Content warnings: Canon-typical crime scene violence (murder, harassment, shootings, etc.)

“Long Away and Far Apart” by timetoboldlygo. 118K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021); Ship: Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu
Recced by: Kealdrakemna
Backstory: Time travel fixit where Wen Kexing goes back to his childhood to prevent the events of the show following Zhou Zishu’s death. He doesn’t know how to live after successfully changing the course of history which ensures he’ll never meet his Zhou Zishu again.
Rec: Beautiful writing that explores loss of love and purpose and grief, all while building Wen Kexing’s relationships with the people in his past that he never got the chance to know. His and Zhou Zishu’s relationship permeates every word and feeling.
Content warnings: Temporary major character death, canon-typical violence, heavy grief and associated poor mental health

“Three Bells, Each With a Separate Sound” by inexplicifics. 30K words (full series 4 works over 38K words), rated Explicit.
Fandom: The Witcher; Ship: Aiden/Lambert/Voltehre
Recced by: Posher10
Backstory: Voltehre is pulled from Speartip's Cave where he should've died and ends up at the ambush that should've killed Aiden. Now, both having survived and bonded through their shared affection for Lambert, they decide to seek him out together.
Rec: The setup for this fic really allows Voltehre and Aiden to exist outside of their relationships with Lambert, even if it is what originally connects them. They're both explored as interesting, interdimensional characters, and I love the relationship that they build over the course of the fic—and them reuniting with Lambert only makes it better from there.
Content warnings: Non-graphic injury

“A Thread Unravelled” by ScribeOfArda. 91K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien; Ship: Maehdros/Fingon
Recced by: Chalionkat
Backstory: The Silmarillion is a tragedy of fighting impossible odds (and Doom) when you know you can't win, and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad is one of the great tragedies within the story. Here Maehdros, the great tragic general, is blessed or cursed to fight it over and over again. Can he find a way to win, to save his family and the free peoples, and the man he loves?
Rec: Maehdros is a great character, and here he is really put through the wringer.
Content warnings: Canon-typical violence, canon-typical death and resurrection

BG3 was so revolutionary because they cover your blorbo in sweat and make them roll around on the floor in pain

— Suzanne ✨🌑 (@tendermiasma.com) July 14, 2026 at 12:36 PM

FINAL THOUGHT

That’s all, folks! Have a relaxing weekend! — Gav