#boardwalk empire fan art
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Vincent D’Onofrio, Alan Tudyk, Brent Spiner Among Additions to FAN EXPO Cleveland, April 12-14
Eight standout celebrities from genres as varied as sci-fi, action and children’s programming have been added to the guest roster at FAN EXPO Cleveland, April 12-14 at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. Among the newly announced stars are Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”), Alan Tudyk (Star Wars, “Firefly”), Brent Spiner (“Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Independence Day), the “Ahsoka” duo of Eman Esfandi and Diana Lee Inosanto, Ethan Suplee (“My Name is Earl,” American History X), Jeff Ward (“One Piece,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) and Butch Hartman (creator, “The Fairly OddParents,” “HobbyKids Adventures”).
The eight join a strong previously announced slate that includes The Lord of the Rings “four hobbits” Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, Danny Trejo (Machete, From Dusk Till Dawn) and Charlie Cox (“Daredevil,” “Boardwalk Empire”), legendary director Sam Raimi, “Charmed” star Rose McGowan, “Harry Potter” standout Matthew Lewis and Jason Lee (“My Name is Earl,” The Incredibles).
In addition to starring as “Wilson Fisk” opposite Cox in the Netflix series “Daredevil,” Vincent D’Onofrio has a resume of more than 100 roles, most popularly as the lead detective “Bobby Goren” in the long-running NBC drama “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” His notable film credits include Full Metal Jacket, Dying Young, Men in Black, Mystic Pizza, Jurassic World and The Break Up.
Tudyk gained fans’ attention when he starred as wise-cracking "Hoban 'Wash' Washburne" in "Firefly" and Serenity, and later grabbed the “Star Wars” fandom with his portrayal of “K-2SO” in Rogue One. He also appeared in Wreck it Ralph and 42 and has lent his voice to characters in hits like “American Dad,” “Harley Quinn,” “Transformers: Earthspeak” and “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.”
For 15 years (seven on TV and four feature films), “TNG” fans were treated to the talented Spiner in the role of "Lt. Commander Data," an android with superhuman abilities. Spiner may not have all of those same powers, but FAN EXPO attendees will have the opportunity to meet this personable, quick-witted star of stage and screen. In addition to his regular role in the current Paramount+ series “Star Trek: Picard,” some of his other popular credits include Independence Day (and, 20 years later, the sequel, Resurgence), "Warehouse 13," "Fresh Hell" and "Threshold."
Esfandi co-starred opposite Rosario Dawson, David Tennant and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in this year’s Disney+ miniseries “Ahsoka,” part of the Star Wars universe. He has also been seen in King Richard with Will Smith and The Inspection with Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union.
Inosanto appears alongside Esfandi as “Morgan Elsbeth” in “Ahsoka”. She originated that role in an episode of “Mandalorian” in 2020 after appearing in dozens of movies and shows as a stunt person and a variety of other entertainment jobs.
Suplee has had nearly 100 film and TV roles, from comedies like the Kevin Smith productions Mallrats, Dogma and Clerks III, “My Name is Earl,” and “Boy Meets World” to dramas such as Remember the Titans and The Butterfly Effect.
Ward played “Deke Shaw” as a regular on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” from 2017-2020, and most recently appeared in the first season of the Netflix adventure/comedy “One Piece.” Fans will also recognize him from his work in “Brand New Cherry Flavor” and the TV movie Manson’s Lost Girls, where he gave an appropriately creepy performance as the cult leader.
Hartman created some of the most memorable children’s series, including “Fairly Odd Parents,” “Danny Phantom,” “TUFF Puppy,” “Bunsen is a Beast” and “The Noog Network.” A public speaker, YouTuber motivator and teacher at Butch Hartman’s Art Academy, Hartman is passionate about inspiring young animators to believe in themselves and pursue their dreams.
Single-Day Tickets, Three-Day Passes, and Ultimate Fan Packages for FAN EXPO Cleveland are available now. Advance pricing is available until March 28. More guest news will be released in the following weeks, including line-up reveals for additional headline celebrities, comic creator guests, voice actors and cosplayers.
Cleveland is the sixth event on the 2024 FAN EXPO HQ calendar; the full schedule is available at fanexpohq.com/home/events/.
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Top Things You Should See in New York City
New York City is a vibrant and diverse metropolis with a plethora of attractions to explore. Here are some top things you should consider seeing when visiting:
Statue of Liberty: An iconic symbol of freedom and democracy, you can take a ferry to Liberty Island and visit the statue up close.
Times Square: Known as "The Crossroads of the World," Times Square is famous for its bright lights, giant billboards, and bustling atmosphere.
Central Park: This massive urban park offers a peaceful oasis in the midst of the city's hustle and bustle. You can enjoy walking, picnicking, biking, and even boating here.
Empire State Building: Visit the observation deck of this iconic skyscraper for breathtaking views of the city's skyline.
Broadway: Catch a world-class theater performance in the Theater District, home to numerous famous shows and musicals.
Museum Mile: Explore the world-renowned museums along Fifth Avenue, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), the Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of the City of New York.
9/11 Memorial and Museum: Pay tribute to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the memorial and learn about the events at the museum.
Brooklyn Bridge: Walk or bike across this iconic suspension bridge for stunning views of the Manhattan skyline and the East River.
High Line: This elevated park was built on a former railway track and offers a unique perspective of the city, with beautiful gardens, art installations, and urban design.
Chinatown and Little Italy: Immerse yourself in the cultural diversity of NYC by exploring these neighborhoods, known for their authentic cuisine, markets, and atmosphere.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): Experience an incredible collection of modern and contemporary art from renowned artists.
The Metropolitan Opera: If you're a fan of opera, attending a performance at the Met can be a truly unforgettable experience.
Coney Island: Enjoy the beach, amusement park rides, and the iconic boardwalk, offering a classic slice of Americana.
Rockefeller Center: Especially beautiful during the holiday season, you can ice skate, visit the Top of the Rock observation deck, or see the famous Christmas tree.
The Bronx Zoo: One of the largest metropolitan zoos in the world, offering a wide variety of animals and exhibits.
Grand Central Terminal: An architectural marvel, this historic train station features a stunning main concourse and intricate details.
St. Patrick's Cathedral: This Gothic Revival masterpiece is one of the most impressive religious landmarks in the city.
New York Public Library: Admire the grand architecture and explore the vast collection of books and exhibits.
One World Trade Center: Also known as the Freedom Tower, this modern skyscraper offers an observation deck and a moving tribute to 9/11.
Fifth Avenue Shopping: Shop in some of the world's most famous stores and boutiques along this iconic avenue.
Remember that NYC is a dynamic city with ever-changing events and attractions, so be sure to check for the latest information before your visit.
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Happy Birthday to one talented, hardworking and humble actor - Shea Whigham!!!
For his Birthday I decided to draw him as Eli Thompson from Boardwalk Empire, because I know that many people got to know him mostly thanks to this show, so it’s a really important role in his career. As for me, Boardwalk Empire wasn’t the first thing where I saw him, but he was the reason I watched it, and I’m very grateful, because this show is AWESOME, truly one of the best I’ve seen. Thank you, Shea!
Plus, I’ve been thinking of drawing Eli for quite a long while anyways, so here we are :)
#shea whigham#eli thompson#boardwalk empire#fan art#boardwalk empire fan art#traditional art#artists on tumblr#Happy Birthday!#userkk#userkimb#rochc93#fancykraken
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Let’s talk dead fandoms. When you start writing a 150k word fic (*cough* first in a series *cough*) but things like fanart aren’t going to happen you get a little batty. So there I am, doom scrolling through Reddit, when I see this and my crazed mind goes...
“It’s like someone DREW how I imagined Clara looking at Richard after their New Years Eve dance” and I’m HAPPY.
#tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow#boardwalk empire#fanfiction#richard harrow#Clara Thompson#fan art#but not really#check out the artist’s page
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Warrior
By chance, I learned about a show called “Warrior,” originally on Cinemax and now streaming on HBOMax. The basic premise is that a martial arts prodigy immigrates to San Francisco Chinatown in 1878 and is quickly sold to a tong that is on the verge of going to war with a rival tong. The dearth of movies or TV shows set in pre-earthquake (1906) San Francisco always baffles me, given how incredibly socially diverse, violent, raunchy, crime-ridden, wealthy, and often lawless the city was. Portions of the waterfront were even built in abandoned ships. Imagine the amazing sets you could design! I’ll watch anything set in pre-quake San Francisco, especially if it’s going to tell the story of characters, such as Chinese immigrants, that we almost never see in Westerns or other films set in this era.
So I was already in before I saw that the show is based on an 8-page treatment by Bruce Lee and related notes his daughter, Shannon Lee, found. She is also an executive producer, along with Justin Lin. I’m not a huge fan of martial arts movies in general, but this one had a lot of potential so I checked it out and got immediately sucked in.
I’m not going to spoil the plot but it gets convoluted quickly. Probably about 2/3 of the scenes end up with fighting and there is plenty of sex, too. Is it a little trashy with all that sex and violence? Yes, but GOOD trashy, with characters that are multi-dimensional, well-written, directed, and acted, though the costuming leaves a lot to be desired and, somewhat stereotypically for the Western genre, most scenes occur in brothels or barrooms and there are a few historically improbable relationships. But OK, this is borderline pulp fiction and the story is exciting so whatever.
What I love most about the show, however, is how well it portrays a totally neglected aspect of California and American history: How virulent anti-Chinese racism shaped white working class politics in the West. It is the only show I’ve ever seen that directly addresses the cultural climate and politics leading up to the Chinese Exclusion Act from a Chinese point of view. One of the central conflicts in the show depicts how white laborers brutally intimidated and assaulted Chinese workers and their white employers, and how politicians used the “they’re taking our jobs” rhetoric for political gain. One of the main antagonists is a ruthless Irish labor boss called Dylan Leary, who is obviously a fictionalized version of Denis Kearney.
The show mostly accurately depicts how Chinese were sequestered in Chinatown by a combination of laws that prevented them from owning property or becoming citizens and a campaign of terror led by white vigilantes, making it easy for white business owners to extract grueling labor for hardly any pay. The combination of exploitation and exclusion the Chinese immigrants face in American society intensifies a “get rich quick and get out” mentality among some Chinese immigrants, who are more than willing to do anything they must to their own people in order to send money home, make enough money to go home, or to become the most powerful people in Chinatown. Limited opportunities for economic and social advancement outside of Chinatown drive some to organized crime gangs called tongs that have turned this ethnic enclave into a haven for opium, gambling, and prostitution. While the show is set in this sensationalistic criminal underworld, it’s clearly contextualized-- If these guys had the same opportunities as white people, they’d become industrialist tycoons, too. You just don’t see stuff like this on TV!
The ghost of the Civil War is never far from the action, either. The irony of people who held strong views and fought against slavery going West and then oppressing Chinese workers, many of whom were also enslaved by debt bondage, is not lost on this show.
It’s tempting to think that the show is retroactively putting contemporary anti-immigrant policies into the past to make a point. But the point is actually that things really were like this in the 1870s and remain to this day at the heart of American politics. As a show that fits into TVs “Western” genre, it is unique in its point of view and how much detail it goes into about actual racial politics of the era as well as the hopes, dreams, and disappointments of people who have to build their own community in a society that hates everything about them except their strong arms and backs.
Speaking of which, part of the show’s appeal is how generous it is to viewers of its many very hot actors and actresses! It manages to have sweaty, shirtless martial arts sequences and exotic, langorous, opium-enhanced brothel sequences that don’t feel exploitative or one-dimensional because they are just parts of a much bigger, well-rounded world the characters inhabit.
And I totally lost my shit when there was a scene set inside a business inside an abandoned ship in San Francisco’s infamous, utterly lawless Barbary Coast. I don’t honestly know how many businesses continued to be operated out of abandoned ships in the 1870s but surely there were some and I don’t even really care because I was just so excited to see something like that come to life.
One review wrote, The vibe is very much “What if Peaky Blinders was racially diverse and half the characters could roundhouse kick you in the face?”
Another review wrote: There’s a lot about the show that will be recognizable to fans of today’s dark antihero dramas: The gangster storyline feels like a plot from Boardwalk Empire or Peaky Blinders, the frontier fable of capitalism resembles Deadwood, and warring factions vying for power recall similar conflicts on Game of Thrones. But what sets Warrior apart is its focus on a fascinating chapter in the American story that’s often treated like an afterthought in history books. And it wraps that history lesson in an enticing action-thriller package with nods to spaghetti Westerns, the kung fu cinema of Hong Kong, gangster flicks, and exploitation films, as well as other grindhouse genres.
I discovered Warrior thanks to this essay by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Here’s a quote: The real issue here isn’t just adding more Asian American characters, it’s about the kind of characters portrayed. Two important areas that are deliberately overlooked by Hollywood are Asian Americans as romantic leads and as heroic leads. Few series dare to have an Asian American man as the object of romantic desire, especially by a white woman (are you listening, Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise?). Fewer have Asian American women as leads prized for their intelligence and outspoken strength rather than their svelte figure and flirty smile. There are exceptions: the wonderful Cinemax series Warrior, based on a Bruce Lee treatment, focuses mostly on tough and sexy Chinese men and women fighting for survival in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1870s.
“Warrior” currently has two seasons. It was canceled when Cinemax ceased producing original content. But Shannon Lee and Justin Lin are hoping that with enough fan support, HBOMax will agree to make more seasons. Check it out!
#warrior#warrior cinemax#i also recognized two of the actors from Vikings#Dianne Doan is great in this and she also played a slave girl that bewitched Ragnar in Vikings#i might switch teams for Chao#and Jason Tobin steals the show as Young Jun#Ah Toy is a great character based on a real-life woman#so many good characters
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Nucky Tomphson from Boardwalk Empire. I really love this series!
#nucky thompson#steve buscemi#boardwalk empire#hbo#1920s#my art#fan art#digital art#artists on tumblr#erribeka
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Quarantine Tag Game (tagged by @hacash)
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Are you staying home from school/work? Kind of? The university semester is over so I’m doing what I’d have been doing anyway (working on assessments). But I’d usually be working on them at the library and that’s closed, so I guess I’m staying home in that way.
Who is at home with you? No one. I live on my own. The other day I bumped into my tailoring dummy and got the overwhelming urge to give it a hug (an urge I did not resist). The touch starvation is real.
Are you a homebody? Yeah. I don’t do a lot of in-person socialising outside of LARP.
Any event that you were looking forward to that got canceled? My own book launch! I’ve got a poetry book with me and two other poets that’s coming out sometime this month. We’re looking into options for a virtual launch.
I was also going to visit my aunt in Dallas before all this. If it had taken a few more weeks to really hit the fan, I could have ended up stuck over there when the quarantine started. There are also several LARP events that I was planning on doing that are either cancelled or likely to be.
What movies have you been watching recently? Got around to watching the Hunger Games films. They were alright. I watched Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse yesterday; that was amazing. Watched Prince of Egypt with my friends via Kast on the first night of Passover. That was good.
What are you doing for self care? I already have a self care system from my chronic mental health problems, so I’m mostly just trying to stick to that. I’ve been using my government-sanctioned outside time to go for runs three times a week. Reigning in my sleep cycle when it starts going out of whack. Trying not to eat my body weight in chocolate, or at least add some vegetables in there too. Playing my fiddle and dulcimer. Making art. Talking to friends over video / voice chat.
What shows are you watching? The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. I’ll probably rewatch Boardwalk Empire just for comfort.
What music have you been listening to? The Spotify playlist I made for one of my characters and my running playlist.
What books are you reading?
Non-fiction: ‘Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales’ by Jack Zipes
Fiction: ‘The Odessa Stories’ by Isaac Babel, translated by Boris Dralyuk
(For the Boardwalk Empire fans on my dash, if you want to give yourself some extra context for Manny Horvitz’s character I’d recommend The Odessa Stories. They’re also just hilarious.)
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Tagging @izzetengineer, @pepsiwithlemon (if you get the chance <3), @illustratedjai, @beasttheyeti, @ashbless, @beornwulf
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Us (2019) *Spoilers*
Us is the best movie I've seen since Mandy. I shouldn't oversell it, but it's really rich and basically everything I like movies for. I’m going to at least refer to major plot spoilers (usually without direct description) so stop reading if you want to stay clean.
Horror seems more direct and out of the box able to get at the concerns I like narrative art to deal with. The genres kind of promote certain thematic preoccupations, and horror is so diencephalonic that it really is able to go psycho-chrono-geographically extreme (more unconscious, more primordial, more in the woods) with less dithering. This movie is an example of why all my favorite movies loosely categorize horror (even cheap dumb horror movies seem to work a lot better subliminally than those of other genres).
For people who don’t care about spoilers and want to follow along, the movie unfolds as follows: A black upper middle class family goes to their vacation house where no-one really wants to be - the daughter is in her phone, the son is withdrawn, the mom actively does not want to be there, and the dad is overcompensating. They go to Santa Cruz beach where the mom, when she was a kid, saw a girl who looked just like her in a hall or mirrors below the carnival/boardwalk, the trauma stemming from which derives much of the movie’s impetus. On the beach, they meet their friends, a white family who are the image of superficial aspirational American values.
One night a full set of their doppelgängers show up in the driveway and a battle for survival begins. This turns out to be broader with, at least regionally, alters (”the tethered”) showing up everywhere and killing their analogous surface people. The white family falls immediately, sand our guys have to face their alters too. The family eventually triumphs, but not before the mom descends into the tunnels under the hall of mirrors and faces her alter who reveals a too literal plot and wins. The family drives away and it is revealed that the mom was (THE SPOILER) the alter all along and what happens is the result of the “real surface mom” jealously yearning for participation in that kind of stuff we do that gives life meaning, including odd self delusions and empty displays... so, like culture in general.
What the movie is really about is how we have within us a shadow of our primal selves, an ancestral image of progenitors who were concerned with drives and survival, and we suppress this so that society can function and we can be free from the knowledge of existential risk. The "absent center" (a la Derrida) of the movie is the culture war in which we are prone to let this shadow (and its instinctual out-group hatred and violence) take more control. We have a complex relationship this repression that involves guilt (we have it better than they did, civilization is theft and genocide, how can I forget this) and tightly bound attraction/fear of giving into the deeper drives - we know it is valuable but we don't want to edge in too far.
So civilization is an internal tension filled detente that is kind of a lie we tell ourselves, and that situation is slipping a little bit. Presented as the main perturbation is trauma - being forced to see the real of which this shadow is a part, whether the trauma is abuse, encountering too harsh truths as a child, day to day existence in western civilization, self inflicted trauma to confirm to norms, the loss of a way of life, epigenetic shock from slavery, or whatever else. Being a “realist”, and societal “red pilling,” is depicted as extremely destabilizing and dangerous because the truths discovered when outed may annihilate everything we have been striving for (if that’s worth saving at all).
Note, this is within the context of not absolute truth but competing ambiguities, or at least an ambivalent set of incommensurable ideas that are all true but are immanently inconsistent. Or, alternately phrased, culture has rejected confronting certain truths for so long that we should be afraid of how a bunch of people who are not nuanced and are not prepared for the knowledge will react, but we really need to understand the real to grapple with the inevitable dissonance (competing ideas of the good) when figuring out a way forward. This movie is not pedantic and is well aware this struggle should not be ignored but the pain of confronting the truth is that it threatens the good in a way that is fucking tough to resolve.
The semiotics of this movie must have taken forever to put together. There is symbolism everywhere and most symbols have multiple meanings.The main reference points are the 1111, rabbits, and the direct references to other media, but it is drenched in nods to the Americana, slavery, status markers, black cultural touchstones, etc..
The 1111 recurrence has many reflections, some harder to notice. 11:11 is in the ether as the “time that big shit goes down,” has numerological connections to the divine descending to earth, and has a direct function of representing the individuation/alienation of the family and the way things are “twinned.” One good example of the way this ties together is, as they walk across the beach, their 4 shadows make the Black Flag symbol (there is recurrence of Black Flag T-shirts to remind us) which is a stylized single (1) flag, furled as to show a staggered arrangement of the 4 band members as individuals - unity in individuality, which the movie questions (also to play into themes of suburban rebellion and “authenticity”). The 1111/11:11 works a lot of ways: to suggest an eschaton of individuality, that there is a moment of great potential and danger, as judgement/revelation foreshadowing (via Jeremiah 11:11 "Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them."), the twinnings at different levels (we see the Black Flag t most clearly in the chest of one of a set of twins who have their own "twins" 11:11 - the other twin just has on a halter to maximally show off her "twins").
The rabbits are a psychological critique of the id in modernity (this movie is interesting about sex in its color-around-the-picture absence). In deep psychological tunnels, they are caged and consumed subconsciously, red and bloody, as the current order/superego’s sacrifice to keep things quiet, and set free by the lysis in libidinal excess. They also abut the slavery imagery as they are caged, utilized instrumentally, and are present not just in tunnels but in something that codes as an underground railroad. But mostly I think Peele must be a David Lynch fan as Inland Empire informs this use.
The Twin Peaks references were unexpected. The first sequence is a descent from the carnival of fake activities that simulate real experience to the “deep place,” past the dweller on the threshold who gives us warning, into the woods with an owl (which isn’t what it seems), and into a veil of curtains through which are the deeper psychological truths where we interrogate inability to cope with trauma as a kind of existential problem - the whole situation as a manifestation of the sickness of the structures that give life meaning. Also, the protagonist is trapped for a similar length of time, has a doppelgänger that is in a way the real protagonist revealed, and needs to face this part of themselves.
So, we’ll try to hit most of the wide ranging pop-culture references, but things really intertwine. Example: the red smocks evoke several things: 1. Michael Jackson, with glove, specifically Thriller (as on the tee), intentionally picking up on the gaslighting, the trauma, the ties to his own hidden nature, and the fraught nature of cultural affiliation (specifically black - Peele is the one doing the questioning) that perpetrates a cycle of behavior (we’ll get to code switching); 2. Chain gangs/prison uniforms - there are shackles in the movie and "tethered" is the word for the link between people and their alters - which, in the imagination, is just an echo of slavery; and 3. Michael Myers... the white mask of one of the characters delineates this, but it reminds one of the other as an encounter with the real. The glove looking like a low res infinity gauntlet will be left as an exercise for the reader.
The Jaws T-shirt fits with the water/boats stuff, evoking the polysemous subliminal other as a threat to out prosperity and illusions about ourselves. Just as in Jaws, the other is a really wide concept and can lend to a lot of different readings focusing on whatever you want to about the modern western world and what we fear/suppress. All the MJ symbols and the mention of OJ alludes to the fraught identity of being trapped between worlds. Black Flag and NWA recalls the shakiness of authenticity from opposite sides. The consistent riffing on The Shinning evokes the sickness in the culture, the family, and the individual as inseparable and leveraged against our forgetting what has happened and who were were before. Hands Across America’s repeated direct referencing instantiates the desire for and society's readiness to provide the lie agreed upon, ambivalence about which is at the heart of the film. Lost Boys is name checked by location and timing - literally they its filming is there in the flashback part - but also the spectacle hiding our savage natures which we are drawn to but need to control. The home invasion scene is very A Clockwork Orange, with the eruption of violent life into the modern domestic space set to pointedly inappropriate music. There are tons of less specific movie references each evoking multiple films with similar shadowing - masks, scissors as weapon, the hall of mirrors, carnival as place of trial and trauma, underground as a place to resolve answers, incongruous music and violence, etc. There is a shot with shelves of VHS tapes all of which have obvious resonances (CHUD, Goonies, the Man with Two Brains, Nightmare on Elm Street) except the Right Stuff which is pointedly there, perhaps as a reminder that man can and will transcend.
Tim Heidecker plays just the kind of character who you'd expect - a clueless smarm who goofily performs the rituals of commodified masculinity while not really seeming masculine at all. His transparency is why he was cast. He is part of a whole family critique of the superficiality of the American dream and how there is rot underneath. Much of this critique is undercooked and a weak spot of the film as the family’s alters, besides Elizabeth Moss’s narcissism prompted ritual self mutilation, aren’t that worked in. Yeah, the father mimes dad stances, and the kids are interchangeable just like suburban identities (right, commuters?), but that’s it. There is a lot of deeply implicit racism and distrust of the outsider in the families’ interactions that is much more subtle than “I would have voted for Obama for a third term.” How about “I knew you’d forget the flare gun” (but not the rope or life preservers) which has a lot running through it - ironic racial assumptions, a from the right critique of a political stance valuing safety and security over defense and accepting help, the "making fire” motif involved in beating back the shadow, and the plastic “real man” attitude.
The primary family is black and affluent, and have a connection to black culture that is depicted as at once not entirely real, aspirational, and a kind of cosmic separation. But (mostly) the really deep connection to these things is "forgotten." Dad’s efforts to code switch when he has to summon something other than performative consumerism comes off as pathetic in the face of the power of the history of survival. As dad listens and performs involvement of “heritage,” the son asks what “I Got 5 On It” means - dad deflects and the daughter answers “drugs.” The correct answer is having a stake in the ($) dream whatever rules you have to break to get there. This rubs (intentionally) uncomfortably against the Michael Jackson and OJ references (and the trapped in the closet pseudo reference) as cultural aspiration is about having to either forget a history of bad things (what the actual text of the things are speaking to) or leave behind the products of that thing (at which point where is your connection to your cultural past).
The Fuck the Police joke works a bunch of different ways: 1. It’s a pun; 2. it’s an Alexa/Siri not working joke; 3. it brings the specter of technology contributing to faulty society into the space (as does the daughter’s phone); 4. it ironically contrasts with Good Vibrations; 5. it ironically contrasts with the action, the incarcerated kicking the shit out of suburbanites as class revenge; 6. the actual police literally still haven’t shown up after the 911 (is a joke) calls; 7. it expresses our ambivalence to societal strictures; 8. it is at odds with the environment, suggesting the absurdity of the middle class aping authenticity; 9. Ice Cube now makes a lot of fish out of water comedies of hood-coded man trying to fake middle class; 10. I could go on.
The weapons used by the heroes are all affluent symbols, often a costly reclaiming/supplanting/mastering of the primitive with the stuff of the modern - an expensive aluminum bat, a golf club, an outboard motor, and a geode mounted on a stand. The 3 family members win against both their shadows and that of their white counterparts by unifying his modern advances with the primitive impulses. The dad wins by understanding how machinery works and by mastering fire. The daughter wins because cars > running. The son is really something because he is all about play and tricks and can't make fire, but is really about empathy (or maybe mirror neurons). His alter plays with fire, has burned himself badly, and is scared by technological magic. So our son makes a spark, and learns to play with the other and thus control him to walk backwards into the alter's own fire. He learns this trapped in a closet (the second R Kelly sub rosa reference this weekend after Shazam saying "I believe I can fly" before a messy edit) surrounded by board games including Monster Trap and Guess Who?
The twist really opens up what the movie is saying and is perfect Twilight Zone type "both chewy plot gotcha and thematic epiphany.” The twist basically says that the jolt of becoming aware of the real is traumatic and, if it is bad enough and you are susceptible, the state of wokenness requires you to fake it in order to fit into the life you desire but are alienated from, while the part of you that loves life (giving over to a spirit, art, believing in something "true" rather than factual) stays buried ready to erupt with negative effects. This is a unique take on the subjectivity of trauma, that the bad unacceptable thing that is not supposed to happen that happened to you makes you feel like you are characterized primarily by that bad thing pretending to be the transcendent nature you repressed. And yet, the movie ends with the Shining helicopter landscape shots of the car driving away, to Hands Across America being re-enacted, our primitive selves being inspired to attempt to recreate the lie of society as a life affirming spectacle. This rhymes with the mom continuing to play mom as the performance is the reality, is who she really is.
I have left a lot on the table... the boat (that always pulls left) stuff as class critique, the voices the alters have, what each families’ possessions say (especially the wall art and architecture of the houses), the movements of the alters, the coding of the water settings, the idea of the “Carnival” of souls over abandoned tunnels and superficial (cheap and temporary) vs. deep (forgotten) culture, the scissors as a compound metaphor, the mirroring, 100 other media nods (e.g. Home Alone), the general quality of the music cues, the overdetermining alter names from the IMDB page, the Howard and thỏ shirts, the drunk dad, the excessive hinting at common types abuse (using film and real language) but not letting us have that as an organizing reality (as Nightmare on Elm Street does), and other stuff I’m not dredging up.
The movie is not prefect - 1. it commits the cardinal sin of 11th hour exposition to set the literal plot in concrete, which I didn't need and waters down the themes; 2. the white family (other than mom) deserves more specific behavior from their alters, and 3. there is only one real standout acting performance (Lupita Nyong'o, who I didn't "get" until this). But man, this is 1000 x better than Get Out - it's broader and more primal in its concerns with race falling out as just one critique among many.
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What are you favourite period dramas, I need something new to watch.
the fact that people trust my taste is questionable. also, i don’t watch anything like you probably haven’t already heard of but REGARDLESS:
harlots - story about 18th century sex workers in london. focuses mostly around the wells-north family who we love dearly and wish all happiness (ha, not likely). all the women are lovely and deserve better. lots of incredible costuming, georgian architecture, so much sex, and family dramaaaaaaaaaaa. actual queer ladies! so excited!
peaky blinders - post ww1 organised crime family tries to stick it to the toffs and for the love of god just hold it together. people from the midlands have a belter of a time. i hate this show but only because i love it so much and want it to be Better. all the women are lovely and deserve better. lots of incredible costuming, working class grit, sad boys, and family draaammmmaaaaaa. people from America often say they can’t understand a single fucking word of it.
the crown - queen lizzie before she was old. family draammmmaaaaa. sumptuous costuming. toffs. forbidden affairs. matters of state and furrowed brows. you know, monarchy stuff. the 50′s were shit, but by gum were they an Aesthetic.
jamestown - 17th century virginia colony. starts with a group of women going over to marry men in the colony. all the women are lovely and deserve better. chacrow is a sweet baby angel.
turn - 18th century revolutionary war. ben tallmadge is somehow simultaneously a puppy who needs Help, but also a terrifying soldier/spy master. Lafayette. the women are all lovely and deserve better. so much bromance.
vikings - it’s pretty terrible, and it gets worse, but i invested the time anyway. again, the vikings are an Aesthetic. family drama. all the women are lovely and deserve better, even if they are not actually great people but whatever they all get their characters destroyed or killed off anyway. i love religious imagery so it appeals to me. there is queerbaiting but you accept it. great for fans of axes. the siege of paris is still the best episode i think.
the scandalous lady w - set in the 18th century, based on a real thing. all the men are terrible and deserve nothing. natalie dormer just wants to be happy with her boyfriend but society is terrible and the law is wrong. that scene of her throwing the coin is Good. THE COSTUMING. i think we’ve established i have a thing for period dress in all it’s forms and also the georgian era is my Style Heaven, like clothes, architecture, art, EVERYTHING.
the tudors - obvs and obvs. i also have a thing for natalie dormer, add that to the list.
versailles - it’s beautiful, it’s bitchy, it’s tragic, it’s resplendent. there are queer people who are occasionally happy. louis is a dick but i also want to give him a hug and tell him it’s going to be ok sometimes. i think i just like george blagden and me not being able to see past his puppiness. also court intrigue and spy drama happens.
taboo - tom hardy makes this. it’s weird. i love it. he does have sex with his half sister. just...be aware of that. is he having a mental break or is his mum a witch ghost? we don’t know.
boardwalk empire - like peaky blinders but american. post ww1 organised crime right up to the formation of the mafia for reals. everyone is terrible but they dress well.
frontier - jason mamoa makes this. 18th century canadian fur trade. they spend lots of time in the wilderness and the snow and i love it.
ordeal by innocence - agatha christie adaptation. horrible people adopt lots of children who sort of tolerate each other and then the mum gets murdered and everyone is Suspicious of everyone else.
the alienist - victoriany crime stuff. very gory. dead kids. makes you sad. i love everyone in it though and want to Protect them. many, many triggers be prepared.
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Ambergris!
Amberlough, Armistice, Amnesty...Ambergris? That could be a potential title for a 4th book, right? I mean, Ambergris is basically whale poo that makes perfume, but hey, it’d be a cool title. It’s also the basis of an awesome Bob’s Burgers episode.
I couldn’t find a gif from the actual episode, so...I picked this one.
And by all of that, I mean: Amnesty, book three of the Amberlough Dossier by Lara Elena Donnelly!
Hoo boy.
So there are two things I really, really love in a story: old timey spycraft (there’s a reason why one of my favorite ever TV series is TURN: Washington’s Spies. You don’t get more crafty than 18th century spycrafting!) and Art Deco. I love Art Deco. I love the style that emerged in the 1920s and 30s - when fashion, especially for women, took a massive heel-face-turn, when electricity was only just becoming mainstream, cars were phasing out horse-drawn transport, radio was becoming a thing and everybody smoked like chimneys and drank like fish, and figured it probably wasn’t bad for you. Seriously, you go from the 1910s, where women’s skirts were floor-length and heaven forbid someone see your ankles, to dresses with hemlines above the knee. We’re talking knee-exposure, people! That is a DEFCON-1 sartorial situation, people! Edwardian matrons are having heart attacks at the sight of their granddaughters’ knees. The 20s and 30s it seems combine the sort of fun, old-timey lawlessness of Ye Olden Days with just a enough modernity so things are fun. I mean, come on, it’s like Boardwalk Empire or The Untouchables, or Jeeves and Wooster or Caberet. Or the planet Sigma Iotia II from the Star Trek episode A Piece of the Action.
OK, so my love of the 20s and 30s and old timey spycraft has been well-established, right? Yeah, those are both things I very much enjoy. I love John Le Carre’s George Smiley books because that’s back when spying involved handwritten notes taped to the backs of benches and dead-drops in train station lockers. I’m sure modern spycraft still uses some of these old-school methods - you can’t hack a piece of paper, after all - but old timey spycraft just sounds, I dunno, more fun than modern spycraft. At least, it’s more fun for me to read about.
Anyway! This brings me around to Lara Elena Donnelly’s Amberlough Dossier series.
The Amberlough Dossier is technically a fantasy series because it takes place in a world that doesn’t exist. Though that world seems extremely familiar - it’s basically Sigma Iotia II from A Piece of the Action, or Berlin of Christopher Isherwood’s 1930s - a world of decadence, caberet, free-flowing booze and cigarettes...that is slowly rotting from the inside out. 1930s Germany is a fascinating place - and by “fascinating” I mean “pants-pissing-levels of terrifying.” As someone who spent many, many, many, some would say “too many” years spent learning German, a language I almost never, ever use in my daily life (like, ever), I also spent a lot of time learning about German history. The way the rise of the Nazis also saw the rise of the Kabarett. Anyway, Amberlough City is very much like a mix of New York, London, and Berlin of the 30s. You’ve got all the fun of the 30s, mixed with the rise of a Fascist party called the One State Party, or OSP, frequently referred to as “Ospies.”
Now, if you haven’t read Amberlough and Armistice, you should. You really should. In fact, why don’t you do that. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Did you read them? Aren’t they fantastic? OK. So, on to the grand finale: Amnesty!
Just as Armistice begins with a three-year time jump after the events of Amberlough, Amnesty does the same, only this time, it’s five years after the events of Armistice, eight years after everything that went down during Amberlough. I’m not always a fan of time jumps - more often than not they make me angry, because I want to know absolutely everything that happens all the time always. Only, in the case of Amnesty, as with Armistice, I got over it pretty quick. Donnelly knows how to smooth over a time jump, filling us in with the events that happened in-between, and it does make sense that, for the most part, most major events of interest don’t always take place in perfect, chronological order. Anyway, we’re at five years after Armistice - Aristide and Daoud failed in their efforts to find Cyril in the Lisoan jungle, and they ended up setting up their own half-legit import/export business instead. Things are going pretty well - then Aristide gets a phone call from Prince Asiyah. They’ve found Cyril. Gasp!!
Meanwhile, in Amberlough, the Ospies have fallen. The revolution is over. If you were hoping for a whole book dedicated to guerilla warfare between Spotlight and the Ospies, well...sorry, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, we skip immediately to the interim government, trying to rebuild Amberlough from scratch. Lillian DePaul, with her husband Jinadh Addas and their son Stephen, now 13, have relocated back to the DePaul family home in Amberlough. The houses (a country estate and a town house) didn’t fare too well during Ospie rule, nor did the DePaul family’s assets. Plus, there’s also Cyril’s reputation is traitor to the nation to deal with. So Lillian, practically broke, has to contend with two crumbling houses that she can’t afford to staff properly, a husband who is not 100% happy with life in Amberlough, and a 13-year-old boy who acts like, well, a 13-year-old boy. Namely: moody, pissy and generally insufferable.
Then she gets a call out of nowhere from her old kind-of-sort-of-friend, Aristide Makricosta, with the news that her brother Cyril is still alive, and heading back to come stay with her. Yay?
Poor Cyril. Things were not great for him during the 8 years between the end of Amberlough and the start of Amnesty. He’d spent most of that time running dangerous ops for the Lisoan government in the jungle, with little regard for his own life. So when he finally emerges back to civilization he’s...well, different. There’s definitely a strong combination of PTSD and extreme guilt there. Plus a bit of survivalist kleptomania (hey, if you don’t know when you’re going to eat next, you’d squirrel away bits of food, too). Cyril is basically a man with a death wish, not giving a fuck about much of anything, preferring instead to retreat behind the mask of his work identities. Now he’s back - reunited with his old lover, Aristide, and his sister, Lillian. Plus, he gets to finally meet his nephew, Stephen.
But Cyril’s return to Amberlough isn’t exactly the best idea: once word gets out that he’s back, one of the politicians running for president of the new Amberlough decides to use Cyril as a political platform, namely that he should be arrested and put to death for treason. Cyril is like “sure, OK,” to that, but Lillian and Aristide? Yeah, they definitely don’t like that idea, and now they have to scramble to save not just Cyril, but themselves as well.
OK, so I fricking love this series. I tore through Amberlough and Armistice in just a couple of days, and I’m a slow reader, so that’s saying something. Amnesty is a completely satisfying end to the series, though I will still want more details about Cyril’s SuperHappyFun Jungle Adventures, or Aristide’s adventures in Porachis Bollywood or Coredlia’s rise as the leader of the resistance. Having those time gaps between books means we get to imagine all the adventures that happened in between. Which means: fanfiction! Woo! Or possible future short stories of novellas. (Cough cough hint hint Ms. Donnelly). If you’re not fond of big time gaps, then you might find this series frustrating, but still, Amnesty is an absolutely satisfying conclusion to the series.
My biggest complaint is, however, most definitely a spoiler, so I will be as vague as possible: one of the characters is killed off between Armistice and Amnesty. At first, I was pissed - it’s like when a character is killed off between seasons of a TV show because the actor got fired or left for a different job. You’re like, “noooo!” but, going directly from Armistice to Amnesty, the death of this particular character does make sense, and it’s not like their death is dismissed with a hand wave. It’s a huge part of the story. I’d already forgiven the off-screen death by the time I’d gotten halfway through the book. So if you’re tempted to throw the book across the room when you learn that [character] died between books, don’t. Keep going. You’d be cheating yourself otherwise.
My second biggest complaint is that we never get a map that includes the exact locations of Liso and Porachis. I want to know where everything is, damn it!
In all, you need to read this series. If you want a fantastic LGBTQ romance, a story that spans nearly a decade, old-timey Le Carre-level spycraft, political infighting, scheming, and a 1930s-esque world, then you need to read the entire Amberlough Dossier. Go on. You know you want to.
RECOMMENDED FOR: Fans of worlds inspired by the 20s and 30s, John Le Carre fans, anyone in need for a LGBTQ romance with spycraft elements.
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anybody not interested in reading about the minutiae of politics of a world that doesn’t exist. I love that sort of thing but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
OVERALL SERIES RATING: 5/5
AMNESTY RATING: 4.5/5
AMNESTY RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2019
ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR ANOTHER BOOK / NOVELLA / SHORT STORY / ANYTHING: Olympus Mons
#amberlough#amberlough dossier#armistice#amnesty#lara elena donnelly#cyril depaul#aristide makricosta#cordelia lehane#fiction#science fiction#fantasy#book review#lgbtq#lgbtq fiction#lgbtq fantasy#1930s#art deco#trilogy#need more books#we need diverse books#must read
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Jupiter’s Legacy: Leslie Bibb and the History of Lady Liberty
https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
This article is presented by:
Leslie Bibb successfully made the transition from modeling to acting, making her television debut 25 years ago in the TV series Pacific Blue and on the big screen a year later in Howard Stern’s Private Parts. Since then she’s appeared in more than two dozen movies and a wide variety of TV shows, including the main cast of The Big Easy, Popular, Line of Fire, Crossing Jordan, GCB, Salem Rogers: Model of the Year 1998 and the forthcoming Home Movie The Princess Bride.
Fans of the superhero genre will undoubtedly recognize her as reporter Christine Everhart in Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010). Now she gets to don the superhero costume to fight evil as Grace Sampson/Lady Liberty in Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy, and in the following exclusive interview she details her road to discover who Grace is as a person and the experience of shooting the series.
VITAL STATISTICS
NAME: Grace Kennedy Sampson
ALTER EGO: Lady Liberty
POWERS AND ABILITIES: Super strength, speed, and sight; power of flight; some level of invulnerability; knows when people are lying.
NEED TO KNOW: Wife of Sheldon Sampson, mother to Brandon and Chloe, and founding member of The Union. She’s the glue that holds the Sampson family together.
What’s it like to wear a superhero costume?
When I put it on, I was, like, “This is pretty badass.” Listen, I felt that maybe I’d missed that window to be a superhero, so to get to do it … well, I feel really lucky and excited. And to be able to do it on this level, because Netflix really wanted to do it right, is amazing.
What attracted you to the show?
I like just getting to kick ass and all that, because it’s fun. But there has to be a story to it, otherwise who gives a shit and who’s going to come back if there’s not something that pulls you in to it? I remember when I read the first couple of scripts thinking, “Hmm, I’ve never read this sort of take on a superhero show.” I mean, there was the family dynamic—it felt Shakespearean a little bit and it felt like a family drama. And then there was the aspect of all of us in the beginning of the story, in the 1920s, where it felt like Mad Men meets Justice League or something.
How did you find Grace?
My mom passed away unexpectedly a couple of years ago, and I remember being struck with how I saw her change; how fearful she got as she got older.
Was it fear of her own mortality?
Fear of mortality, how she changed ideals—I just watched her change drastically, and she was so different. To watch that change was heartbreaking and confusing and scary. Because I saw fear, I saw perhaps regret, I saw all of these things. I got the show right after she passed away and what struck me about it were these characters, especially The Union. You see them when they’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in their 20s and so idealistic. And then, when they’re older it is such a difference and you don’t usually get that perspective.
It reminds me of what Coppola did with The Godfather and The Godfather Part II with the flashbacks. I’d never really seen a TV show do it, let alone a superhero show, but you get to see them change and how cool to create that moment where it starts to change.
One of my first big jobs I got was this movie called The Spouse and I had a picture of Natalie Portman that I cut out of Vanity Fair or something, and there was a quote with it that said, “Be the fearless girl your mother warned you about.” That quote always stuck with me, and when I got this part, it really resonated with me, because Grace, as you’re seeing her in the present day, has forgotten the fearless girl she was.
On this show, I really love that they created this character who, in 1929, works in a male-dominated world when women weren’t working; they were getting married and having kids. But she was the captain of a wrestling team. She didn’t have time for relationships. She was very career driven at a time when that wasn’t common for women. And she was a truth seeker, and vibrant and alive and didn’t take shit from anybody.
Did you tap into that fear?
What I incorporated, probably subconsciously, was the moxie she had when she was younger. Her fearlessness in a world that was very male-dominated. This is especially true for the first season, where it’s so important to show the idealism they once had.
I always said my mom was like a cat on a hot tin roof; she always landed on her feet. Grace is that way, too. Even if she’s scared, she’s going to talk her way out of it or find a way out of it. She’s going to figure it out. And looking at my mom led me to Grace’s beginnings. Also inspiring were people like Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, and Amelia Earhart.
I always have a lot of photos of my friends around, so wherever I go, I feel like I have family and friends with me. My trailer always has loads of pictures of them, but also incorporated are characters and people like Amelia, Kathy Hepburn… everyone laughed that I had Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones up there. I just find it inspiring to see all of them around you and they give me those things I thought was important to set up in the first season. Again, the idealism of where they started.
Is this a world you’d been very familiar with?
Comic books are not my world and I didn’t appreciate them, because I didn’t realize the artistry, storytelling and depth that go into comics. Now watching people talk about comics, I get very excited. For normal folk like myself, if somebody just said, “Oh, it’s like Game of Thrones or Boardwalk Empire,” you see that it’s all the same character breakdowns and it’s the same drama happening in these little worlds.
As always, the script is the thing.
The most important thing!
How would you say Grace evolves?
What you see with Grace, especially in the present day, is a woman who has the weight of the world on her shoulders, which is becoming more difficult, because her husband is digging his heels in and there’s no bend to him. But the world isn’t the same as it used to be. We’re bringing knives to a fight where people have drones. As a result, there’s a ripping at the seams and, at the end, her not toeing the company line, not standing in a unified front with her husband.
At the end of the day, they’re a married couple, and they’re a married couple who work together and live together. After a pandemic, everybody understands how hard it is to be with somebody 24/7, you know what I mean? It’s like, this is what this woman and this man have been dealing with.
Which represents quite the change.
By the end, she’s finding her voice and asking herself, “Where’s the fearless girl I used to be? What have I given up for this that maybe I don’t agree with anymore?” The set of rules that worked in 1929, just don’t work anymore and she experiences an awakening.
And it’s fascinating to see them questioning the beliefs they’ve always held, which is yet another reflection of where we’ve been in recent years.
That’s the beauty of comic books. It’s like Captain America coming in and saving the day or Lady Liberty coming in and taking the robbers away, making the world safe and it’ll be okay. But what we’re realizing is that you can be the strongest person in the world and be so weak when it comes to your children. You can be the smartest person in the world, but you can’t figure out love. Nobody is infallible. We all have an Achilles heel and none of us have the answer. Yet we think that we do. We think we know the right way. And there’s something interesting in that gray area with the show.
Any particular highlights for you of the filming?
The thing about the show is that it’s constantly morphing and reinventing itself. I want people to stick with it, because when we get to the island where they get their powers, it will be impossible for you to not think it’s the coolest shit you’ve ever seen. I just remember when we were filming it, it was weird, because the weather was really crazy. We were supposed to be on a little island. Puerto Rico had just been struck by a hurricane, so we lost that location.
Then we were going to shoot on an island in Toronto, but we ran over because of other things, so we couldn’t do that. So we had to make an island out of Toronto—our production designer was amazing. Anyway, we were filming one day and it was 60 degrees, gorgeous, sunny. We were, like, “It’s great that we’re going to be here.” And literally the next day there was a snowstorm. Our director, Mark Jobst, said, “We’re using it. This is what the island would do.” It was almost like suddenly art was imitating life.
When we were at a beach and we’d just landed, a rainstorm came in and then there was all this mud, so it was crazy. But the six of us truly felt so bonded during this whole experience that it just enhanced the chemistry. I know that we all felt like we’d been through a war together in this filming, because of the environment. It was just so out there.
So for an audience unfamiliar with the Jupiter’s Legacy comic, what do you think the power of the show will be for them?
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It’s really this epic, Shakespearean family story. It’s about human beings and power struggles. Plus, I think we’re all kind of our own superheroes right now. Our doctors and nurses on the frontline are superheroes. Families who are losing their jobs and pivoting are superheroes. We’re not going through a Great Depression, but that’s where our show starts and with the idea of having to reinvent yourself when the world gets turned upside down. So I hope the human story of it translates, because that’s really what we wanted people to see: these human beings and what they’re going through. And it just happens to be that their day job is that they wear capes and save the world, but they’re going through the same things that we all are.
The post Jupiter’s Legacy: Leslie Bibb and the History of Lady Liberty appeared first on Den of Geek.
from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3tYQ1hc
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11, 26, & 30!! also congratulations on the internship :D
AHHH thank you! ;w;
Three Songs Ask List
11. three favourite songs from movie or TV series soundtrack
My Man by Regina Spektor (from Boardwalk Empire ;3)
All of the Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix Vol. 1
The Surrender (La resa) by Ennio Morricone (Inglourious Basterds Soundtrack)
26. three favourite non-English songs
Non Regrette Rien By Edith Piaf
La Vie En Rose by Edith Piaf (I’m a big fan of Piaf)
Rosenrot by Rammstein
30. three songs you really want your followers to know (for reasons other than all those above)
My Heart is the Worst Kind of Weapon by Fall Out Boy (its a good song from an early EP)
Art of Pretension by Scarling (just because its an old favorite of mine I’ve rediscovered)
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by Arctic Monkeys (it slaps. it just slaps)
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Episode 11: Dickinson with Bronwen Burton
Please consult these Instagram slideshows for accompanying images:
Dickinson part 1, part 2
Both:
Welcome to The Costume Plot.
Jojo:
I'm Jojo Siu.
Sarah:
and I’m Sarah Timm. We're professional designers with a passion for costume design and the performing arts. Our podcast does contain spoilers.
Jojo:
We hope you'll join us every other week as we delve into the wonderful world of costume design in The Costume Plot. [music]
Sarah
Hello!
Jojo
Hello!
Sarah
Welcome back to The Costume Plot.
Jojo
We're so excited.
Sarah
So today is a special episode because we have a special guest for the first time. Jojo and I know her professionally, she's the shop manager and resident costume witch at Fullerton College, and you might know her from her YouTube channel Queen DeLuxe. It's Bronwen Burton.
Bronwen
Hello, friends.
Jojo
Welcome, Bronwen!
Bronwen
I'm so excited to be here.
Jojo
Yeah, thank you for being our first guest.
Sarah
Thank you so much for doing this.
Bronwen
I'm super duper excited.
Sarah
We're really excited.
Jojo
So we are going to be focusing on a movie today. But we also had a couple questions for our guest artist, which is something that will be a common theme for all of our guests artists, as well. But we wanted to start with a show that Bronwyn said she wanted to cover. So we're really excited to be talking about the show "Dickinson" today. So... Oh, go ahead.
Sarah
It's so interesting, because like when I was talking to people about being guests, I originally envisioned our guest episodes as not even being about TV show or movies. But then when I would talk to people about they'd be like, "well, I want to do this, and I want to do this." and like, oh... it makes sense. You want to do the show. [both laugh] That makes sense.
Jojo
that's what we've started.
Sarah
Yeah, that's exciting, though, that people want to join us in our thing that we do. That's... I like... yeah, I'm excited. So anyway.
Bronwen
yeah, I am super excited. This is like, I feel like Dickinson is one of my like new obsessions. So.
Sarah
I'm so glad to hear about it.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Jojo
you've definitely been talking about it for a while. And I finally got to see the first two episodes. But of course, I'm excited to hear about your thoughts on it. Now that you've seen the whole... well, now in season two, right?
Bronwen
Yes. And I'm not even sure if-- they were slowly releasing them. So I forgot to check to see if they're all... have been released, or if there's still a couple more. But it's a super interesting show. I'm super into it. But I've been reading a lot of things online and either people love it, or they hate it. There's no in between.
Sarah
It's kind of anachronistic, right? Like they're doing some modern stuff.
Bronwen
Super-- super, and super not anachronistic. So it's both. It's so weird.
Sarah
People get really spicy about that.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Jojo
They definitely do.
Bronwen
I'm super into it. So it was created by Alena Smith, who is a playwright. And she also has written for some TV. So I think that's why I'm enjoying it, since it's sort of got a playwriting kind of thing happening. So it's definitely got some theater-like background, but I think that's why I'm into it.
Sarah
We love that.
Bronwen
Yeah. The costume designer is John Dunn, who is-- he did "Vinyl" and "Boardwalk Empire". So he's done some big stuff.
Jojo
Oh, I love that show. [laughs]
Bronwen
And they had 40 people in their costume department. So it's kind of like a big...
Sarah
Wow!
Bronwen
Yeah. Which... I know, because you guys were talking about "Bridgerton"...
Jojo
That's a really good size.
Bronwen
...how many people did they have on "Bridgerton" again?
Sarah
I don't remember.
Jojo
It was like 208 or something like that.
Bronwen
But like, this show is so much smaller than "Bridgerton". So I was like, "wow."
Jojo
Right.
Bronwen
They have a lot of people working on it. At any rate...
Sarah
Well, “Bridgerton," they did it-- it was like-- it took them three years or something, didn't it? Like it-- it was in production for forever.
Bronwen
Okay, I don't know--
Jojo
Well, in terms of building, it was only five months.
Sarah
Oh, really? Oh, yeah. I was making that up. [laughs]
Jojo
It was a really, really short time period. [all laugh] I was like, "five months? That's like, nothing."
Bronwen
Sorry, I don't have any of that information. But--
Sarah
That's okay.
Bronwen
And then, so I read an article with the costume designer, and he... so what did he say? He said... so, "Dickinson" is like a coming of age story about Emily Dickinson. So it's sort of based in reality, but then they don't-- we don't have a whole bunch of information about Emily Dickinson. So there's certain things we know, all the way through. And they hit those points, but then they're kind of making up the stuff that's in between.
Sarah
Ooh!
Bronwen
So and-- like, telling that story, I guess, through through the actual things that happened with storytelling. So it's super interesting. So when you look... when I look at her history, they're hitting all those points, so it's fun. Like, now it makes me want to read like all about Emily Dickinson. So, I don't know.
Sarah
This is gonna make me want to watch the show for sure.
Jojo
Mmhmm.
Bronwen
Right. So it's kind of-- but like, for me, it's all about the costumes. So that's why I started watching the show. Like, I'm not an Emily Dickinson fan. So here we are, I might become one.
Jojo
Yeah. [all laugh]
Sarah
That's awesome.
Bronwen
Yeah. So let's see, the costumes are deeply researched. So they're really historically accurate. I'm-- I was surprised because I thought they were going to be more inaccurate or anachronistic. But yeah, I feel like they did play with some color. But they're pretty... pretty right on. When I get to pictures I will show you. So he said that he wanted to sort of fix the warped idea that Americans have with the 1850s and 1860s. Because that's when it takes place. Because that's when we have all of those sepia toned photographs from the Civil War. So a lot of people think of it as this sort of dark and dingy thing. But actually there's lots and lots of color that's happening during this time, because this is when the new dyes were becoming available. So there's lots of bright colors and there's lots of plaid, and tone-on-tone, and pattern-with-pattern is happening. So he really didn't want it to be gloomy. He wanted it to be exciting. So that's what he said about it. So I guess I can go into a little bit of history of Emily Dickinson. So she was born in 1830. She lives with a middle class family. She has an older brother and a younger sister. So older brother Austin, younger brother-- or, younger sister Lavinia. And then a mom and a dad. And then her best friend is Sue, who is her best friend and her love interest. So...
Sarah
Oh!
Bronwen
Yeah. And Sue ends up marrying her brother because of lots of reasons. But her... basically, she ends up being an orphan, with no money and nowhere to stay. So her brother ends up marrying her and they live next door in a big old mansion. It's lovely.
Jojo
Like you do. [laughs]
Bronwen
Like you do.
Sarah
Oh, to be best friends with adjoining mansions! [all laugh]
Bronwen
Right?
Jojo
Just a walk away.
Bronwen
But at any rate, this show is weird, and I really like it. So I'm going to start, I guess I'm going to share my screen so you guys can start seeing...
Sarah
We would love to.
Jojo
Yeah! I'm really excited about this show too. Like I said, I only just started watching the first two episodes. But now that you said the playwright is, you know, a theater playwright, I was like, "Oh, that makes so much sense." There's a lot of just really nice beats in the actual-- I mean, just in the first two episodes, I think, that are very theatrical.
Bronwen
Yes.
Jojo
So I'm excited.
Bronwen
Yeah, I want to know what you think about it.
Jojo
Yeah, it's definitely-- well, and it's funny too, because I think I'm kind of like you, once I started watching this show, I was kind of like, "Oh, is this really what her life was like?" And I started going on a little rabbit hole of, who was Emily Dickinson, and were these things accurate? And how much of this is actually in our... what's the right word? Like, how much of this do we actually know about her life? And even the white dress at the beginning. Which, you know, I'll let you talk a little bit more about but I was like, "Oh, there's actually a story behind this!"
Bronwen
Yeah! So okay, so here is the white dress. So she starts out in this white dress. So this is an actual picture of Emily Dickinson, and here's our actress.
Sarah
Haley Steinfeld, right?
Jojo
Yeah.
Bronwen
Yes. Yes. So they actually look a lot alike. Or, they've made her look like Emily Dickinson. So I think that's-- it's really nice to see, they they got the ugly middle part of the 1850s going. For sure. The hair is surprisingly right, a lot of the time.
Sarah
That's awesome.
Bronwen
She does have her... yeah, she does have her hair down a lot, but it's okay. She's a free spirit.
Jojo
Mmhmm.
Bronwen
So the white dress, they have her start in this white dress. Because of this dress that is an extant example. So it is her dress. She started wearing white at the end of her life almost exclusively, which is pretty weird for the period. But this one, of course, is older. It's the end of her life where-- as we are talking about, kind of like her mid 20s.
Sarah
Was there a reason that she started wearing white?
Bronwen
There probably is but I don't, like...
Sarah
We don't know.
Bronwen
I think she-- I don't-- I didn't get too far down that rabbit hole.
Sarah
Right.
Bronwen
There was so much to research.
Jojo
Mmhmm.
Bronwen
So, but-- they would, in the show-- they do a seance and stuff, where everyone wears white to the seance, so they can be pure and connect with spirits and stuff. So it might have some spiritual wisdom connected to it. But it's nice that-- so they've basically taken the dress that Emily is wearing in the still, and almost recreated it in white, to sort of represent the white dress, or the white stuff, that she ends up wearing at the end of her life. So I think that's nice. And it's really pretty. Let's see if I can make this bigger for you guys. Like, you can see like the gathering and the smocking.
Sarah
Ooh, lovely.
Jojo
Yeah, it's really beautiful.
Bronwen
Like, the detail that they're doing.
Jojo
Even the sleeves. There's a really nice detail on the sleeves, too.
Bronwen
Yeah, it's... yeah. And it's like the detail that is in the original dress. They kind of recreated that over here.
Jojo
Yeah, so beautiful.
Bronwen
Like, it kind of picks up over the under sleeve. It is so pretty. And like this teeny, eeny weeny piping around the neck.
Sarah
Ooh.
Bronwen
I'm like, into all the-- of course, the construction detail, so...
Sarah
Of course! I love piping.
Bronwen
All right... me too!
Jojo
It's so beautiful.
Bronwen
So that's what she starts out in. And then we got all the other-- her other people. I wanted to talk about Sue. So this is Emily in her white dress, and then Sue... her last sister has died. Basically her entire family dies slowly, one by one. Super tragic.
Sarah
1850s, am I right? [all laugh]
Bronwen
Right. So she is in full mourning here. But she's super poor. So she doesn't have a lot of different-- like, the Victorian era has all these rules about what you're supposed to be wearing when, and what they're supposed to look like, and how dark they are and all this stuff. But she basically wears this really dark navy blue dress the entire time, because she doesn't have an extensive wardrobe. But this whole scene is really nicely shot. I don't know... Jojo, do you agree? Like, I love this whole scene.
Jojo
[laughs] Yeah, I do love that whole scene. She's like, in the tree.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Jojo
Again, this is only in the first episode. But this is when Emily's in the tree, and then she comes in in black. And she's in the tree in white.
Bronwen
Yeah, and this whole, I don't know... you don't know that they're kind of lovers before this. So you just think that they're best friends and she's consoling her, but also mad that she's gonna be marrying her brother. And so it's like, really, all this conflict is happening. And so it's really interesting to have Emily all in white, and then Sue all in black. So this dress is lovely, too. It's really hard to see all the details. But poor Sue.
Jojo
Sue does have a really sad life. [laughs]
Bronwen
She does! Here's a picture of the two of them together in real life. So...
Sarah
So is it from real life, that they were in love?
Bronwen
They don't know for sure, for sure.
Sarah
Oh, okay.
Bronwen
Because we obviously weren't there, but there are a lot of letters, she wrote her extensively. It's almost like she would write her a letter instead of walking across to go to her house.
Sarah
Ooh.
Bronwen
So there's like, tons of letters of them corresponding.
Sarah
I see.
Bronwen
And there are definite overtones, so...
Sarah
Right.
Jojo
I think I also read that there was quite a few of her poems that were edited, to like...
Bronwen
Yes.
Jojo
...because a lot of them were dedicated to Susan.
Sarah
Aww.
Jojo
And then it was edited out that they were dedicated. Because, you know, obviously that was not kosher.
Bronwen
Yeah, that whole thing was really interesting. Like, they didn't... they didn't publish her complete poems until 1955.
Sarah
Wow!
Bronwen
So like, all these, yeah, all of her poems were published, but they were edited and certain things taken out. And so the-- I guess, as respect for the family? So we haven't had-- we didn't have her full poems until 1955. Which I thought was interesting.
Jojo
A whole century later!
Sarah
Yeah!
Bronwen
I know! Crazy, right?
Jojo
Pretty crazy.
Bronwen
So this is a picture of the main characters, sort of. So Emily in the red, Lavinia over here, her younger sister. So she wears a lot of florals and ruffles. It's kind of more of the, I guess, traditional Victorian gal in at least the first season. And then this is her brother, Austin, and Sue here. And Austin always has the craziest 1850s hair, and I'm here for it. [all laugh]
Sarah
I love that kind of-- like, rumpled poet hair, Byron thing.
Jojo
Yeah.
Sarah
Yeah.
Jojo
So funny.
Bronwen
And then it kind of is on all the guys because it was super popular at the time. So but I-- and they usually don't really go for it in TV. And so it's really fun to see it going full out. Lovely.
Jojo
It still looks very boyish and charming. And I feel like we're entering back into that kind of phase in our culture, of appreciating that look. [laughs]
Bronwen
That's true.
Sarah
We talked with Emma Fraser, the writer, about Harry Styles, and how he...
Jojo
Yeah.
Sarah
...really looks sort of like a 19th century poet a lot of the time. [laughs]
Bronwen
I think, you know... we all have COVID hair too, like we all have a little bit more hair. [all laugh]
Sarah
Right?
Jojo
The length is no longer unacceptable, I guess?
Sarah
I feel like-- I see my guy friends on Zoom for trivia once a week. And every week their hair is longer, and they all are looking like Lin Manuel as Alexander Hamilton. [all laugh] Longer and longer.
Jojo
Like, just keep letting it grow out.
Bronwen
It's true. So, okay, let's see. Alright, so this... is it the second episode? No, the first episode still. They introduce Death, because of this poem right here: "because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me, the carriage held but just ourselves and immortality."
Sarah
Ooh.
Bronwen
So she actually talks about how she sees Death all the time. And they go for carriage rides, and they talk and hang out. So in the show, they actually have a spectral carriage that comes to pick her up. And this is her imaginary dress that she wears to go see Death in. So a lot of the show is in her imagination.
Jojo
Mmhmm.
Bronwen
Yeah, Sarah's mouth is standing wide open. [all laugh]
Sarah
I need to watch this!
Bronwen
Isn't it gorgeous?
Jojo
Even just the first two episodes! I was like, "WHAT?"
Bronwen
It's SO good. I'm glad you're liking it, because it's super weird. But I'm into it.
Sarah
I love weird! I need more things to be weird. [all laugh]
Jojo
This-- this is a good balance of really, again, I think like Bronwen said, honoring the story. And because we have so little information, there is so much for them to kind of run with. But they do a lot of really cool-- and again, I think Bronwen and I have had this conversation a few times, about the difference between this kind of anachronism and the "Bridgerton" anachronism. Where... this show, I feel like they kind of intentionally-- you kind of accept that this world is not... it's a weird in-between of the period and modern. Because I think one of the things, actually, I told Bronwen a while back, was that with "Bridgerton" all the music that they played in the background was modern music, but played with classical instruments.
Sarah
Yup.
Jojo
Which I'm... I'm not a huge fan of that. But maybe that's just because I've had classical training and I just... I feel like that needs to stay there. But I-- you know, that's my opinion. But with this one Bronwen had mentioned that all the music was very intentionally modern and contemporary. And that was actually one of the first things that I was listening for, Bronwen, when I was watching the first two episodes. I was like, "Yes, this is a good balance of matching the modern with the period." Like, I can still get into the period. But I understand that it's with modern language and modern slang and modern, you know, music that they've incorporated into that. So I do love that about this show. And I think that's one of the things that makes it so charming, is that you're still able to enjoy the story while still using a contemporary lens.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, and there's a lot of contemporary language that happens also.
Jojo
Mmhmm.
Bronwen
So like, all the young people on the show end up using very contemporary language. Which is interesting since we're then like putting on top of that, totally... Emily Dickinson's poems, right layered on top of that, it's super interesting. And I'm-- I dig it all the time. I don't know. They're like-- they also project her poems in her handwriting on the screen as she's either thinking them or saying them out loud.
Sarah
Mmhmm.
Bronwen
To connect, so you have a visual and the sound that it's making. So it's-- I'm loving it. But at any rate, this dress is so gorgeous. I can't even handle it. So...
Sarah
I love it.
Jojo
Such luscious fabric.
Bronwen
It is... they said it was charmeuse in this Vogue article, so...
Sarah
Oh my gosh.
Jojo
Ooh. Yeah, I love the the upper part of the bodice too.
Bronwen
It is pleated so nicely. Yeah. So it's like super tiny little pleats all the way up.
Sarah
Is that Wiz Khalifa?!
Bronwen
Yes, he's Death! [all laugh] He's like, so cool and so...
Sarah
That's amazing!
Jojo
I love the way they portrayed Death too.
Bronwen
He is so perfect. Like, I can't...
Sarah
He looks a little bit like Dr. Facilier, from "Princess and the Frog".
Bronwen
A little bit.
Jojo
I can see that.
Bronwen
It's a little... it's a little more... less cartoony.
Sarah
Well, yes. [laughs]
Bronwen
I mean...
Sarah
The top hat was giving me that vibe.
Bronwen
Yes. And maybe the little green glasses, I guess.
Jojo
Mmhmm.
Bronwen
But yeah, he's he's very dapper. And he... the carriage itself is beautiful too. So every time the carriage comes, I'm like, "Yes!" Okay, so what else do we need to talk about? The ball. So they have a house party, where all of their friends come over in ball gowns, because like you do.
Sarah
Lovely.
Bronwen
The parents go out of town for the the week-- the weekend, or the night, or something. And so all of their-- her friends come over and they're hanging out. So this is everybody in their ball gowns, which are... look how accurate they are! [laughs] I'm always shocked.
Jojo
I know, so beautiful.
Sarah
Those are really pretty.
Bronwen
Right?
Jojo
I do also love that they've kind of placed the mean girl in this very specific color. [laughs] So the girl in the green is kind of like the mean girl of this season.
Bronwen
At least in the first sesason.
Jojo
I mean, you can tell from her stance too. I think this was the last episode I watched.
Bronwen
Okay.
Jojo
It was their ball scene.
Bronwen
It's a really interesting episode because they end up-- she has that full... Emily has a full moment where she is seeing a bee and she dances with it. Like, a hallucination.
Jojo
Because they take opium.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Sarah
Oh my god!
Bronwen
So, full hallucination in the middle of their living room. I don't know. It's crazy. So they're dressed to the nines at this little house party. And this mean girl is... she has an interesting backstory. So she's in love with Austin, the brother, and they ended up not getting married because she he marries Sue, and she's kind of sad about it.
Jojo
Very sad about it.
Bronwen
And then she... her husband dies, she ends up having a baby and her husband dies, of course, because 1850s, and... [all laugh]
Sarah
Everybody dies.
Bronwen
So in this episode, they're doing like a full on Victorian... line dance. And then it moves into hip hop dancing at the-- like, halfway through. As the night gets crazier.
Jojo
They're like, twerking in it or something, aren't they? [all laugh]
Bronwen
Yeah!
Jojo
...at some point.
Sarah
How do you twerk with all those skirts on.
Bronwen
No problem, man!
Jojo
I know. That's great.
Sarah
How do you, like... you can't even see your booty under a skirt.
Jojo
Like, they're twerking and then I think they're also doing the Doogie? I don't know.
Sarah
The Dougie?
Jojo
I'm... yes. [all laugh]
Sarah
"Teach me how to Dougie," that one?
Jojo
I'm born in the wrong century, Sarah! [laughs]
Sarah
The Doogie Howser, you know? [all laugh]
Bronwen
So Sarah, I was like... I wanted to bring this whole thing up, but I didn't want to name all the dances wrong. So thanks, Jojo, for doing that for me. [all laugh]
Jojo
I did it for you, Bronwen.
Bronwen
Thank you so much. So I don't look so old and...
Sarah
Oh my god.
Jojo
I have no excuse either, 'cause I really-- I'm like, I never learned the Dougie, but like... [laughs]
Sarah
I honestly couldn't tell you what the Dougie is. I just know that it's a song and I know it's a dance. Is it like, this one...? [demonstrates] [all laugh]
Bronwen
This is gonna be good for...
Jojo
Something like that. I don't know. [all laugh] I I don't even know how to pronounce it right, so... you know.
Bronwen
Alright, so here's...
Jojo
We're about on the same page.
Bronwen
...This is what Emily is wearing at that in that scene, in that episode. It's blue.
Sarah
Pretty, pretty.
Bronwen
Isn't it pretty? Like, cartridge pleated and has all this ruching up here.
Jojo
All that smocking!
Bronwen
And then her sister wears it in season two as a hand me down.
Sarah
Love that!
Bronwen
Right? So is I thought that was...
Jojo
So realistic!
Bronwen
So realistic. So cute.
Sarah
Awesome.
Jojo
It's cool seeing that up close, too. Because you can see how it's-- they've clearly arched each row.
Bronwen
Mmhmm.
Jojo
Even across the sleeve.
Sarah
That looks hard to do.
Bronwen
For sure, for sure. [laughs] It's really lovely.
Jojo
So detailed.
Bronwen
And then towards the end of the season, the circus comes to town.
Sarah
Ooh!
Bronwen
And she doesn't end up going, and she ends up having another like a dream sequence thing where she ends up being in the circus. Just as an escapism to everything that's happening in her own life. So... but this is her and Lavinia coming and being like, "Dad, we have to go to the circus!" [all laugh] But look at these...
Jojo
Oh, I love those sweaters.
Bronwen
Aren't they adorable?! I can't even!
Sarah
So cute.
Jojo
So cute.
Bronwen
So she wears this sweater repeatedly.
Jojo
Makes me want to knit something.
Bronwen
I know. I think they're crocheted, technically.
Jojo
Oh yeah, actually, you're right. That is crochet.
Bronwen
It's adorable.
Sarah
I love that they like recycled costumes. That's so... it's so... correct?
Bronwen
Yeah, you'd only have a certain amount of dresses. It's not like you're gonna have an entire-- like we are today. Having, like...
Jojo
Right.
Bronwen
...drawers and drawers of stuff, you would have just a few things. So things do recycle over and over. And she wears that sweater a lot as... when the season changes to colder. And this is the dress she's wearing underneath, and it has this really pretty trim running down. And all of the paisley dresses she wears are so pretty.
Jojo
Yeah.
Sarah
That's cute.
Jojo
That's a really lovely shade of red too.
Bronwen
Yeah, she kind of toggles between blue and red, depending on her mental state. So if she's feeling really good about herself, she's in red. And if she's kind of down on herself, it's blue.
Jojo
What an interesting emotional visual.
Bronwen
Right? So this is...
Sarah
Oh, THAT'S rad.
Bronwen
Right? So this is the corset that she ends up wearing when she goes... she's in the circus. And they actually have a little fitting picture of them figuring out all the tattoos, which I thought was interesting.
Jojo
Oh, cool!
Oh, whoa. That's pretty cool.
Bronwen
Right? And that's like... in this episode, she's just sort of feeling like a freak, right? Like, you know, her father doesn't get it. And she really wants to just be a writer and they want her to be a traditional Victorian lady. And it's not... it's not in her bones. It's just-- she's always writing poetry, and she just can't stop herself. So she's just feeling like she really does belong in the freak show and not in the house. So this is her little... it's so cool. I love these little striped acrobats on the side.
Sarah
Oh, yeah.
Jojo
I really do love circus wear, any kind of circus movie. I just enjoy how people reinterpret the circus each time...
Sarah
Me too.
Jojo
...in every era, every time. I do love that.
Bronwen
It's really... it's kind of sad, because this is very-- a very... moment, thing at the end. And you're like, "wait, I need to look at all of this detail!" I just want to pause it, and there's so many fabulous costumes happening in this entire scene. But...
Jojo
That's usually how it is.
Bronwen
I know, right?
Jojo
You know, the two seconds on screen.
Bronwen
And there's one episode where they dress up like boys to go to a lecture. They look so cute.
Sarah
Oh my gosh.
Jojo
So cute.
Bronwen
I love all the textures that they sort of layered on top of each other.
Sarah
Mmhmm.
Bronwen
I don't know, the clothes just don't stop. They just kind of just keep on going forever. Everybody looks awesome.
Sarah
I feel like I need to start this tonight. [all laugh] Like, I'm so excited to watch this now!
Bronwen
Okay, well this is, I think, the show to watch. So... and this is Sue when she gets married at the very end of the season.
Sarah
Pretty.
Bronwen
She just looks so stinkin' pretty. It's ridiculous.
Jojo
Look at that veil! It's so beautiful.
Bronwen
Look at this necklace! I mean, I can't.
Sarah
Gorge.
Jojo
Super gorge. There are some really lovely bonnets that I just want to sort of shout out to like... it looks like they were built. So...
Sarah
Is that Jane Krakowski?!
Bronwen
It is!
Jojo
It is.
Bronwen
I know!
Sarah
I am such a fan of her!
Bronwen
There's lots of sort of star cameos that happen. So I don't want to... now that you guys are gonna start watching it, I don't want to like... [all laugh] it's so fun to see.
Jojo
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw her as the mom. I was like, "Oh wait, what?"
Sarah
I love her. Also, I met her when I saw "She Loves Me" on Broadway, and she was so nice.
Jojo
Ooh.
Sarah
She was SO nice. She is a true star.
Bronwen
Yeah. And I feel like this is a very different part for her. Like, she's usually sort of glamorous, and she's very pious and kind of like closed and not fabulous?
There's still really funny moments that she has, which is one of the things I love about her.
Yeah. It's a very well-developed character.
Jojo
She has a very sarcastic, witty humor.
Sarah
She's a great comedic-- comedic actress, so I feel like doesn't get a lot of recognition for how good she is.
Bronwen
She's so good. But like, there is... the straw work on this hat. It's braided and it has straw flowers that are three dimensional that are worked in the lace on the inside. Yeah.
Jojo
So beautiful.
Sarah
Good for them for doing beautiful bonnets. I feel like bonnets... we've talked about bonnets and how often we have films just either completely ignore them, or it's just kind of like an afterthought.
Bronwen
Totally. And it's like-- they don't put a lot of bonnets on Emily. But I think that lets-- you know, obviously on purpose, but everyone else is wearing bonnets. So it's just to set her apart.
Sarah
Yeah, it makes her look like more of a free spirit, and different from everybody.
Bronwen
Exactly. Mmhmm.
Jojo
Yeah, they do that really well. She definitely stands out in every scene that she's in. Pretty much the entire show.
Bronwen
Yep. All right. I think that's all I wanted. I mean, the costumes do just go on and on. [laughs] There are-- I think in season two, there's some-- they go to the opera. And so everybody's in ball gowns.
Jojo
Oh, yeah.
Sarah
Ooh, yes.
Jojo
Gorgeous.
Bronwen
And her-- Emily's ball gown is blue velvet. And gold. It is so beautiful.
Jojo
Oooh.
Bronwen
It's probably in this ball gown section...
Jojo
I can't wait.
Sarah
I love velvet.
Bronwen
So at any rate, I don't see-- if there's anything else I wanted to mention. I mean...
Jojo
I think you did a really good job of paring down...
Sarah
I do too, you did great!
Jojo
...considering. [all laugh]
Bronwen
Okay! I mean, there's so much-- so many beautiful clothes every moment of every show. So...
Sarah
You understand our struggle now, of-- we have to edit ourselves down.
Jojo
Yup!
Bronwen
Yes I do. There's still way too many, still way too many.
Jojo
Always, especially with TV shows.
Sarah
Oh, yeah.
Jojo
'Cause every episode can be its own, like... you could have 60 costumes.
Sarah
I've been thinking about it. Like, my favorite TV shows. And I'm like... I really want to cover "Outlander," and I was like, "how about I just pick one episode, that I just think is..."
Jojo
Yeah.
Sarah
"...really a good example?"
Jojo
I think you HAVE to for a TV show, because otherwise it just gets overwhelming. Especially for things like that, where she goes into so many different time periods and areas and locations and interacts with so many different people. There's just no possible way.
Bronwen
Yeah, that show would be impossible.
Jojo
Yeah, it for sure.
Sarah
Yeah.
Jojo
Okay.
Sarah
Well, great job!
Bronwen
Thanks! [all laugh] Thanks, "Dickinson"!
Jojo
Thanks, Bronwen! I'm excited to watch the rest of it. Like I said, with just two episodes, it's... you know, it's been interesting just looking at the costumes. And seeing everything all together. I think-- I think you mentioned last time, production value is a big part of it. And like, you can definitely tell, they've really paid attention to all the details on this show.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Jojo
I think they did a really good job.
Bronwen
You know, that picture I showed of the of her dress, you can see what her room actually look like. And they really did make her room in the set look exactly like the room in the photographs. So...
Sarah
That's so cool.
Bronwen
They've really, really researched everything. And it's kind of nice to have the anachronistic be language, and music, and-- where the visuals are very anchored in the time period. So you don't feel like you're leaving the time period, really.
Jojo
Yeah, I think that's what makes it so accessible too, because we're living in such an audio... I mean, of course, with the podcast. But also just in general. It's such an audio world, that to give us that grounding of the contemporary and what we listen to, while still being able to see a visual from the time period, I feel like makes us connect to the time period a little bit better.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Jojo
Than if we were trying to do this weird mashup.
Sarah
Yeah, like you were saying about "Bridgerton," how they-- it's basically like string quartet covers. And...
Jojo
Yeah.
Sarah
I appreciated what they were trying to do, but I personally don't love a string quartet cover of a pop song, because it doesn't sound good. It sounds like-- if you're-- I think one of them was "Bad Guy" by Billy Eilish.
Jojo
Yeah.
Sarah
And it's like, this song is really good. But there's not really a way to convey this song with only strings, unless you have a really good arranger, and I feel like it was just kind of... it doesn't sound like classical music, it sounds like something else. And it kind of took me out of it a little bit.
Jojo
That's exactly how I feel about classical covers. Because it's, you know, especially with things like "Bad Guy," there's such a slam poetry kind of aspect to it.
Sarah
Yeah!
Jojo
...That I think you just can't get with classical music, because it's just a different-- it's a different medium. So yeah, I think that's what I love about this show is that they let the music just be contemporary, and let that kind of feel what's happening in the scene.
Sarah
I think that's cool.
Jojo
Because you still get that sense of, you know, this is a contemporary feeling, without having to look contemporary in terms of historical accuracy.
Sarah
Right. Yeah, totally.
Jojo
Yeah, cool. Thanks, Bronwyn. Great job! Hopefully not too scary, as our first guest artist. [all laugh]
Bronwen
Thanks though.
Jojo
No pressure.
Bronwen
No pressure.
Sarah
So me and Jojo know what you do. But do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about what you do, in the realm of theater? Or about your YouTube channel? Or, like... what have you been up to? [all laugh]
Bronwen
I know, it's a lot.
Jojo
Self promotion!
Bronwen
So I sort of, I guess... I don't know how far back I want to start. I guess I... you know, I went to school to be a-- I have a costume design degree from Cal Arts. And then ended up sort of not liking just being a costume designer. And I really wanted to build stuff, because that's really what I love. And so I ended up working in different shops starting out as a stitcher, and then ending up as a cutter/draper. And now I run the costume shop at Fullerton College, where Jojo and I work. And then the pandemic happened. And I had kind of started a YouTube channel, sort of on the side, because I wasn't seeing kind of the YouTube stuff that I wanted to see. I wanted people to know the right ways to do things, and that they're accessible and easy to do. And so I started that, sort of on the side, which was really actually great, because then pandemic hit, and we ended up needing to teach people how to do this stuff through Zoom, or whatever. So I kind of had a leg up on teaching far away. [laughs] On video.
Sarah
Yeah, you didn't really have to teach yourself how to record yourself doing things...
Bronwen
Yeah.
Sarah
...'cause you were already doing it. That's awesome.
Bronwen
Yeah. Pretty awesome. So that's kind of... and then, so my YouTube channel is pretty... I don't know, it's silly. And I do do some silly things. But there is a lot of educational stuff happening, as well. I try to make it as fun as possible. So, you should check it out.
Sarah
I love your YouTube videos. I think they're adorable.
Bronwen
Aww, thanks. [laughs]
Jojo
And seeing the final product too, all the stuff you've built has been so cool to watch.
Bronwen
Yeah, I hope so. And then, yeah... I just entered in the Foundations Revealed contest. We'll see how that goes.
Sarah
I saw that, yeah!
Bronwen
Yeah. It's a big...
Jojo
So exciting!
Bronwen
...Worldwide competition. So we'll see. I probably won't win, but you know, it's fun to enter and at least have a goal and something to do.
Sarah
Yeah!
Bronwen
In these times.
Sarah
Totally. Hey, who knows, you might win!
Bronwen
I dunno!
Jojo
I'm rooting for you, Bronwen.
Bronwen
[laughs] I think regular people get to vote. So at least you should check out what everybody worldwide has done.
Sarah
I'll vote, I'll vote for you.
Jojo
I wanna vote! [all laugh]
Bronwen
I don't think they're technically up, but it's gonna be on the Foundations Revealed website in March.
Sarah
And we will post that on our social medias when it's around so that people can vote for you.
Bronwen
Oh, that'd be great.
Jojo
Yeah, we can definitely do that.
Bronwen
Or they can vote for whoever they want.
Sarah
Well, yeah.
Jojo
Vote for Bronwen!
Sarah
We'd prefer that they vote for you. [all laugh]
Jojo
If you're listening to this podcast.
Sarah
I'm sorry, we don't make the rules. It's a legal requirement that you now vote for Bronwen. [all laugh] Since you're listening to this podcast.
Bronwen
Oh, my gosh.
Jojo
So funny. Bronwen has been teaching me a lot too, even of recording and how to do all of that and teach online.
Bronwen
It's bananas. It's been crazy. But fun.
Sarah
I mean, yeah, I know a lot of teachers. My mom is a vocal teacher and a choir teacher. And she has been having to teach vocal ensemble over Zoom.
Jojo
Yeah.
Sarah
And she's really been adapting to. So it's-- it's like everybody's learning a whole new set of skills.
Jojo
Absolutely.
Bronwen
Yeah, I think it's been kind of awesome. Like, in a way, it's really a lot of work and a really different way of doing things. But it has been good, and examining how we teach and sort of fine tuning what we're teaching and stuff. So I think it's been good on the most part. I mean, it's been real rough for our industry, but...
Sarah
Yeah.
Jojo
For sure.
Sarah
So, what is your history with theater? Like, we want to know if there's one specific show that maybe you saw when you were young? Or the first show that you worked on that made you go, "Oh, this is definitely what I want to do."
Bronwen
I think this is an interesting question. Because I think-- so, I grew up-- my parents were artists that made liturgical vestments.
Oh!
So, "liturgical vestments" is fancy word for the stuff that hangs in churches on the altar. Alter cloths and stuff. And it was in the 70s, when they were allowing women to be preachers and ministers and stuff. And they didn't have-- no one was selling robes for ladies. So my mom started making robes for women, and then they sort of ended up doing the art part and the liturgical vestment part. So I grew up in like-- a basic factory kind of setting where there was always silk and stuff in the trash cans. And I would put things together, just crafty. And I was always into costumes and clothing. And I thought for a while I'd be a fashion designer or something. But then-- and my parents, my parents were kind of artists. They always took us to different things that they could take us to, so we ended up going to a "Peter Pan" show when we were pretty little. And I remember it because my mom was actually crying when Tinkerbell died.
Sarah
Aww!
Bronwen
I know. And I was like, "What are you doing?" [all laugh] Like, you know, hard hearted me, I guess. I don't know. Like, watching the audience-- because that moment is so strange in theatrical... I don't know, experiences. Where the whole audience kind of has to buy into what's happening.
Sarah
Yep.
Bronwen
So I think that was the first moment that I felt that like, whatever was happening on stage was actually affecting people, and that we're having a communal response to that. So... which is a weird, kind of existential seven year old thing to be having. [all laugh] But I think that was the first moment that theater... how important theater is. And then I ended up working with a children's theater group, doing mostly building and helping with that, behind the scenes. So that's kind of what-- and then I ended up going to college and stuff. So it's not... it wasn't like... there's not a direct line from that show to theater. But I think all of my love of history and sewing and all that stuff sort of ended up coming together in like, "this is what you should be doing."
Sarah
I love that.
Jojo
Yeah, definitely having that history is great.
Sarah
Yeah, I do feel like a lot of people who work in theater, it's not It wasn't like a... "I've known I wanted to do this forever, and I just went and did it." It's like we all kind of have a meandering path where we try this and we try that. And then it just kind of-- we eventually arrive at theater. We go, "Oh, here it is." Like, "this is what I want."
B:
Right. Yeah.
Sarah
But it takes us a while to figure that out.
Bronwen
Yeah, and then I did-- you know, I tried some film and it was just... the pacing was strange and it just felt... I don't know, theater is so much better! [laughs] For me, I would say.
Sarah
I completely agree. I've been on a couple of sets and they weren't even professional sets, they were small films, and I was like, "this is the most stressful thing I've ever experienced." [laughs]
Bronwen
Yeah, they're just sort of badly organized. Like, you're-- you're prepared for the thing they're going to shoot and then all of a sudden they're like, "Oh, we're gonna shoot this," and you're like, "But we're not prepared for that, we're prepared for this!" So yeah, it was very stressful and...
Jojo
Constantly changing.
Bronwen
Yeah, wait-- a lot of waiting around for, like, "I could have been preparing for this all day if I had known."
Sarah
Right, exactly.
Jojo
Yeah.
Sarah
Yeah, it's like intense boredom followed by the most stressful 30 minutes of your life...
Bronwen
Yes.
Sarah
...and then another five hours of intense boredom. [all laugh]
Jojo
"Hurry up and wait" is basically the entire motto.
Sarah
Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Bronwen
But mostly theater, you're just busy the entire time. So, no sitting around, there's no sitting around in theater. So...
Sarah
Except for during tech. [all laugh]
Jojo
Unless it's just one of those shows.
Sarah
It's true, there are some techs where I'm like-- I hardly sit in the house at all because I'm just running around like a headless chicken.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Jojo
Yup.
Bronwen
That does happen.
Jojo
Very true. Well thanks Bronwen! It's cool hearing that-- I mean, because I know you've talked to me a little bit about some of your background, but it's cool hearing the full story.
Bronwen
I'm glad. I feel like I've not had the most normal childhood, or whatever. [laughs] And I guess, that's how you end up in theater for sure. [all laugh]
Sarah
That's a very fair point. Do you want to tell us a bit about maybe, like... your favorite show you've ever worked on, if you have one?
Bronwen
I always say "Edward Toulane." That was at South Coast Repertory. Really... I don't really know why, I guess, because it's not like I got to fit actors. I made tiny little clothes for this rabbit that was in the show, it's kind of like the star of the show. But he is a stuffed rabbit, that was about, what, two feet high or something? So it was like making doll clothes and getting paid for it, so I think that was my seven year old heart being like, "THIS IS THE BEST!" So... but, you know, and I've made tons of gorgeous dresses and fun stuff, but I-- that is the thing that kind of gave me the most joy.
Jojo
And you've talked-- I mean, you've talked about this before, Bronwen, but I know you really wanted to work for Jim Henson for a while, with The Muppets, too.
Bronwen
Yes I did. [all laugh]
Jojo
I mean, you probably still do.
Unknown Speaker
I want to, too!
Bronwen
Still do, yes.
Sarah
Me too, Bronwen! Yeah, every time-- so my parents, my family and I all watch "The Muppet Christmas Carol" together on Christmas every year. And every time, I stare at the tiny clothes and I'm like, "I want to make them." And then every year around Christmas I end up on the Jim Henson website looking to see if they have job openings, and they never do. [all laugh]
Bronwen
They never do. "The Muppet Christmas Carol" has beautiful costumes!
Sarah
It does! And I actually-- like, it's not oh, you know, it's a little false front vest, a false shirt underneath. It's like they've layered all the actual clothes, they're wearing everything that they should be wearing for the period, and it's all beautiful!
Bronwen
Yeah, absolutely!
Sarah
And it's like, wool and silk...
Jojo
It's alomost more historically accurate than some things you see today, on real people.
Sarah
Yes!
Bronwen
Honestly. Like, they're-- I think Rizzo wears this little smocked shirt.
Sarah
He does. Yes.
Bronwen
And it's... you can see all the hand smocking and it's all super tiny and you're just like, "oh my god, this is mind blowing."
Sarah
Yes!
Jojo
Uh-huh.
Bronwen
So, at any rate, I would love to work with The Muppets, since forever.
Sarah
We should do that. [laughs]
Bronwen
Yeah, of the things I've done, I've done a lot of weird things in my life but that is not one of them. [all laugh]
Jojo
Can we just start a small company and just like, market? Just say "Hey, we already do this for, like... just hire us as a team."
Sarah
I actually-- I know some people who did some work with All Puppet Players in Fullerton, and for a while I was like, "Can I please...?" They were gonna do a puppet version of "Pride and Prejudice"...
Jojo
Ooh!
Sarah
...and I was like, "I need to be involved in this," and then I don't think they ever ended up doing it. And it was a huge disappointment to me because I wanted to make puppet clothes so bad I was like, "I will do this for free." [all laugh] "I desperately need to do this."
Bronwen
Who knew that so many costumers are desperate to work at Jim Henson?
Jojo
In small scale. [all laugh]
Sarah
I know! It's fun because it's-- it's a different shaped body than we're used to.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Sarah
It's tiny, and everybody loves tiny things.
Bronwen
Yeah!
Sarah
And then they can't complain.
Bronwen
Yeah!
Sarah
Like, the doll or the puppet can't talk back to you, to tell you that their neck is too itchy. You know?
Bronwen
Right! Right. It's kind of the best of all worlds.
Jojo
Right, yeah.
Sarah
Exactly! [all laugh]
Jojo
So funny. I never even thought about it that way but that's so true.
Bronwen
I don't know I guess if you're...
Jojo
Working with an inanimate object that doesn't talk back to me.
Bronwen
I'm sure Miss Piggy would talk back to you.
Sarah
Yeah, that's... yes. I wonder if-- that makes me wonder how Muppet fittings are run. [all laugh] Does the person who is the-- is the person operating it while you're doing the fitting, just to see how it... moves?
Jojo
Talking back to you.
Sarah
Yeah! And like, can they help themselves from talking while they're...
Jojo
No.
Bronwen
I'm sure they can't. I'm sure they can't.
Sarah
Yeah, puppet people are like that.
Bronwen
[laughs] "Puppet people."
Sarah
We all know puppet people.
Jojo
We know puppet people. [all laugh]
Sarah
Some of the weirdest, and I mean this in the most loving way, some of the weirdest people I've ever worked with are the puppet people.
Bronwen
I don't know if I've worked with a lot of puppet-- I don't think I've worked with any puppet people.
Jojo
I was gonna say, I think both of you have worked with a lot more puppet people than I have. [laughs]
Sarah
We've been doing a lot of puppets at SCR, for some reason. We did "Amos and Boris," and they made a giant whale puppet for that. I mean, it...
Jojo
Wow.
Sarah
...it was more of a... like, a vehicle? But they called it a puppet, you know, and it had to have a mouth that opened and stuff.
Bronwen
Awesome.
Sarah
And then we did "Mr Popper's Penguins," which had a bunch of penguins in it.
Jojo
Oh, yeah.
Sarah
Oh, and then I did "Flora and Ulysses," I was the assistant costume designer on that, where the squirrel was a puppet. So I feel like I've worked with fair amount of puppet designers. They're always really weird.
Bronwen
Hmm.
Jojo
Interesting.
Bronwen
Well, that's fun. Good to know. I always like working with the weirdos, so.
Sarah
Yeah, I mean...
Bronwen
I fit in, you know.
Jojo
We click together.
Sarah
That is the beauty of theater, is that like... it's almost like joining the circus, right? Where it's a bunch of misfits coming together.
Bronwen
Exactly. Exactly.
Jojo
Very cool. Well, I don't know if I had any other specific questions, but I know we're nearing our time as well. I'm running at 52 minutes on my time.
Sarah
That's pretty good, I think. We usually like to stay to an hour...ish. [all laugh] You know.
Bronwen
Okay!
Sarah
It's easy to get excited and then just get carried away.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Jojo
Especially when there's beautiful costumes to be looked at.
Bronwen
I know, and every episode is honestly so well put together and everything. Like, I have favorite episodes that don't necessarily have my favorite costumes. So it was hard to choose what to talk about. So...
Jojo
Yeah, I feel like the show also keeps it-- it keeps the storyline moving, but you're always-- there's always something in each scene. There's not a lot of dead space.
Bronwen
Yeah.
Jojo
If that makes any sense? Because I feel like sometimes--especially with historical period shows--sometimes they focus so much on the dead space, and the waiting, that you're just kind of like, "why is this in here?"
Bronwen
Right.
Jojo
Like I'm just sitting watching nature happen for 10 minutes. [laughs]
Bronwen
That's definitely not happening. [laughs]
Jojo
Definitely not.
Sarah
I do feel like some period period pieces have a pacing issue.
Jojo
Yeah.
Bronwen
Mmhmm. I mean, Jane Austen... like, they're often just waiting for a letter, right, that's part of the book.
Jojo
Right.
Unknown Speaker
It's true.
Jojo
But you know, I feel like... so I guess this isn't the best example, but the new "Pride and Prejudice." There's very intentional reasons for why she has those waiting periods. But then there's there's other versions of "Pride and Prejudice" where I'm just like, "Okay, we just watched them walk across the courtyard for 10 minutes." [all laugh] Like, let's get to the other side of the courtyard already.
Sarah
Pick up the pace!
Bronwen
It's hard to get away from our modern pacing, right?
Jojo
[laughs] That's true.
Sarah
Yeah, we're used to a lot of instant gratification and 10 minute YouTube videos, so...
Bronwen
Yeah, yeah.
Jojo
It's true.
Bronwen
Definitely, I think it's hard.
Sarah
You've got to find a way to get people to not stare at their phone while they're watching your show.
Bronwen
Right. That's interesting you say that. "Dickinson," I never-- I never pick up my phone when I'm watching that show.
Sarah
I feel like that's as good a testament as any to how good it is, you know?
Jojo
Yeah, very true.
Bronwen
But I will say, it's not for everybody. [laughs]
Jojo
For the weirdos, maybe?
Bronwen
It's definitely for the weirdos, it's for us weirdos.
Jojo
Yes. Yeah, I definitely-- like I said, I'm only two episodes in but I'm really enjoying just everything about it right now.
Bronwen
I'm so glad because I was wondering.
Jojo
Thank you for the suggestion, Bronwen.
Bronwen
Okay, good. Nothing worse than being like, "this is the best show!" And then everyone else was like, "no, this show is terrible. I don't understand why you like it." [all laugh]
Sarah
Well if they don't like it, that's on them. That's not your fault.
Bronwen
No, it's not. [all laugh]
Sarah
So do you want to tell people where they can follow you on social media if they feel so inclined?
Bronwen
Sure, so I'm on Instagram @queendeluxesew. And then, on YouTube at Queen DeLuxe, or you can look up Bronwen Burton. I don't know if you guys have swipe up yet, on your Instagram.
Sarah
No. We sure don't.
Bronwen
I don't either.
Sarah
But we can tag you. We'll tag Bronwen on Instagram, and we'll also have it in the episode description, her social media and stuff.
Jojo
I'll probably post it on YouTube as well. I might be able to just link it to your actual YouTube page.
Bronwen
Yeah, so if you want to learn some sewing, you can check out my channel.
Sarah
Or just watch her make cute vintage-y clothes.
Jojo
It's pretty great.
Bronwen
Yes, or some historical things too, way back there. Yeah.
Sarah
Awesome.
Jojo
Perfect! Thanks Bronwen.
Sarah
Thank you so much for joining us. We had so much fun.
Bronwen
Oh good. I did too, and my dogs didn't bark, which was a miracle. [all laugh]
Sarah
I forgot about your dogs momentarily. Good dogs!
Jojo
That's a good sign.
Bronwen
I was waiting for them-- and we're going to have to stop our recording, or whatever, you're gonna have to do tons of editing, so I'm glad.
Sarah
Yay!
Jojo
I know, it worked out very well.
Sarah
Good job, puppies.
Bronwen
Good job, puppies.
Sarah
Okay well.
Jojo
Perfect!
Sarah
Thanks for listening to The Costume Plot.
Jojo
We're looking forward to next month where we'll be sharing a couple more movies. We're going to go back to covering movies again, but I know we're going to have more guest episodes in the future.
Sarah
Most definitely.
Jojo
Thanks for joining us.
Sarah
Okay, bye bye.
Jojo
Signing out!
Sarah
Bye!
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Pokemon Crossover project
To get my mind off of everything going on in my life I wanted to post some Pokemon crossover teams. My ideas are the following:
- The Umbrella Academy
- Stranger Things
- It (2016-2019)
- Boardwalk Empire
- I’m Not Okay With This
If anyone wants to suggest pokemon feel free to do so. If you want to see a certain crossover let me know as well. I am a huge pokemon fan and was inspired by the art from @feriowind and others to do this.
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Where Are They Now? 'Home Alone' Cast
By Celine Littlejohn
Twenty five years ago, the first Home Alone film was released and we were introduced to the McCallisters. In both the original and its just as beautiful sequel, 1992′s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, young Kevin McCallister is accidentally left home alone during the holidays--with some unwelcome visitors. His creative and mischievous ways to thwart the baddies and make it on his own have made Home Alone a Christmas classic for decades.
Kevin McCallister
This clever kid completely stole all of our hearts with his wacky antics battling the baddies and making it on his own when he's accidentally left *gasp* home alone!
Macaulay Culkin
Since Home Alone, Macaulay acted in such films as 1994's Richie Rich. The 35-year-old still acts, making appearances on Robot Chicken, Saved!, and Will and Grace. He also plays in a Velvet Underground tribute band known as the Pizza Underground. Currently, he's dating All My Children actress Jordan Lane Price after being in an 8-year relationship with Mila Kunis. He recently revisited Home Alone in a very interesting way.
Harry
One half of the Wet/Sticky Bandits was Harry, who wants to do as much damage to Kevin as he's done to him and his partner, Marv. Uh-oh!
Joe Pesci
The Goodfellas alum (a role which won him an Oscar!) appeared in similar roles - Casino, My Cousin Vinny, and A Bronx's Tale. He had a cameo in 2006's The Good Shepherd which was directed by and starred Robert DeNiro.
Marv
Bumbling burglar Marv is Harry's partner-in-crime!
Daniel Stern
The former narrator of The Wonder Years has since appeared in Manhattan and Getting On. He's an artist, too, creating bronze sculptures and in 2009, he received the "Call To Service Award" from President Obama for being a founder of the Malibu Arts Commission and working with the troops.
Peter McCallister
Kevin's dad had a cool demeanor but that doesn't mean he wasn't just as worried about Kev as his wife was.
John Heard
Since Home Alone, Kevin's dad has appeared in everything from The Sopranos and Law & Order to NCIS: Los Angeles.
Kate McCallister
Kevin's mom just wants to make sure her son is safe and sound, especially after leaving him home alone - twice!
Catherine O'Hara
She received an Emmy nom for the 2010 TV movie, Temple Grandin, has a starring role on the series, Schitt's Creek, and has appeared in shows such as 30 Rock and Modern Family.
Uncle Frank
Ah, yes. Who could ever forget free-loading, cheapskate cantankerous Uncle Frank?
Gerry Bamman
For years, he played defense attorney Stan Gilum on Law and Order and has since made roles on The Good Wife and The Following.
Old Man Marley
Is Old Man Marley really as creepy as he seems?
Roberts Blossom
Roberts was in the original Great Gatsby and such classics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Escape from Alcatraz. He made an appearance in the 1999 TV film Ballon Farm before passing away in 2011 at 87.
Buzz McCallister
Ah, yes. Buzz. Kevin's annoying big brother who called him a "trout sniffer," has a pet tarantula, and gives Kevin a hard time for everything. Ugh. Brothers…
Devin Ratray
Devin Ratray is still an actor, appearing in such movies and TV shows as RIPD, Supernatural, Louie, Elementary and The Good Wife. He also has a band called "Little Bill and the Beckleys". And he tried to woo former Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice in the film Courting Condi.
Fuller
Fun Fact: Kevin's adorable little bed-wetting cousin was really Macaulay's little brother in real life.
Kieran Culkin
Kieran has popped up in everything from Fargo to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World since his Home Alone days.
Pigeon Lady
There's something about that Pigeon Lady that doesn't seem so scary after all, tbh.
Brenda Fricker
This Irish actress can really act. She won a Supporting Actress Oscar in 1989 for her role in My Left Foot and and last appeared as Mrs. Smith in the 2013 TV series, Forgive Me before retiring from acting as of 2014.
E.F. Duncan
E.F. Duncan has got to be the nicest man. Ever. Maybe even (dare we say it) nicer than Santa?
Eddie Bracken
Active in the industry since the 1930s, Home Alone 2 would be one of Bracken's final roles. He voiced Sebastian in The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue in 1997 and ultimately passed away in 2002.
Concierge
The pompous and sly concierge at The Plaza Hotel is sure Kevin is up to no good.
Tim Curry
Dr. Frank-N-Furter from the '70s cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show has made notable appearances in It and Clue. Many millennials will recognize Curry as the voice of Nigel Thornberry in Nickelodeon's The Wild Thornberries. He also made theater appearances in Spamalot and A Christmas Carol. Unfortunately, Curry has been dealing with health issues resulting from a stroke he had a few years ago. In June, he received an Actors Fund of America Artistic Achievement Award.
Cedric (Bellman)
Bellman Cedric sure loves a good tip.
Rob Schneider
Comedian Rob Schneider is an SNL alum who has been in everything from Grown Ups to the Deuce Bigalow films. His latest movie is the western comedy, The Ridiculous 6, which premiered on Netflix earlier in December. Did we also mention his daughter is Ex's & Oh's singer, Elle King?
Desk Clerk
The desk clerk at The Plaza Hotel isn't Kevin's number one fan, to say the least.
Dana Ivey
From The Help to Boardwalk Empire, Tony-nominated Ivey is still active in the world of acting, getting inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2008.
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