#piewitness
yesterday was the tenth annual fangirls' thanksgiving - a party i made up back in 2007 so our local contingent could get together, bring a potluck of leftovers, and watch the media we were thankful for that year. it was partly inspired by "pushing daisies" and all those pies, and partly by selfishness (i was living far from home but still wanted to celebrate at some point during the weekend, so i chose to do so with my fandom family). i didn't expect it to turn into my favorite personal tradition and a happiest holiday i'd look forward to every year. earlier this week, i went through ten years of email invites for the pie party, most given a fannish ~title ("for your pies only", "welcome to pie vale", "magic pies xxl", "piefall"... this year's "pies & rec" became "#piewitness" for obvious reasons) and whoooooo boy, i sure have a lifelong commitment to bad pun appreciation.
anyway, in case you haven't had enough sap on your timeline this weekend... i am thankful beyond words for my friends who have shared this celebration with me year after year, contributing amazing dishes and delicious booze, finding common fannish ground even though our interests have all diverged many times over the years (except for GHOSTBUSTERS! oh, and i believe "eyewitness" might have reunited a good many of us once again in a tv fandom), and miraculously cramming into the woefully limited space in my apartment for a day of drinks, chill, laughter, and shared squee. (confession: after the party, it takes me a few weeks to put all the furniture back where it belongs - because for as long as that extra chair is in the living room, my place still feels like a party space for fangirls.)
and if i'm not around beyond this year to continue the tradition, i sincerely hope it will live on among the group of friends i'd made here.
so, in the spirit of fannish enjoyment, here are some things that make me happy these days.
TEEVEE:
• PITCH - oh my god, i love ginny so much my heart hurts. amazing performances; sharp, fun, & insightful look into the world and community of pro sports; stories at the intersections of gender and race and class; ali larter <3. (also mark-paul gosselaar who is apparently unrecognizable w that beard, and it's a special delight to witness people figure it out. heh.)
• EYEWITNESS - come for the primary plot of boys kissing and being desperately into each other but super conflicted and angsty and OMG SO MANY TROPES AND SO MUCH HOTNESS... and stay for a fantastic portrayal of complex, layered, fascinating adults (mostly women, at that). season's best surprise, hands down. it's a 10-ep season and you can stream it w cable via usa's site, or buy it on VOD; trust me, it is very, very worth it.
• SUPERGIRL - the heart of the show is kara's relationship with her sister alex, and alex is THE MOST AMAZING; her arc this season is some of the most personal, realistic, powerful storytelling i've seen on television. best superhero show; sweetest, most hopeful, kindest without being dumbed down or oversimplified.
• THE EXORCIST - ben daniels plays a canonically (heh) gay priest & has mad chemistry with another priest, who is almost painfully pretty (he's played by lito's boyfriend from sense8). together they exorcise demons, have very passionate and physical, uh, discussions and disagreements, and also share a tremendous level of trust out of necessity (help-with-collar-appending scene included - seriously, they hit SO MANY buttons, y'all). the show is pretty gross and on occasion quite scary, which means i only watch it in daylight; still, they keep delivering emotional truth at moments when i expect camp, so i'm surprisingly hooked even beyond the hot priests plot line.
• ELEMENTARY - ah, it continues to be so good! and the characters keep GROWING in believable ways! i love sherlock and joan's partnership, the way they are developing as people, the way their circle of friends and colleagues weaves a wonderful sense of community. also, that's the city i live in; i can actually recognize it on screen, and it looks pretty damn real.
• BROOKLYN 99 - favorite comedy. i was going through such painful withdrawal between seasons that, over the course of 2 weeks, i finally mainlined the entirety of PARKS & REC (which i also warmly, warmly recommend - tho feel free to skip the first season). and now it's back, and the only way i could be happier is if holt's husband made an appearance every once in a while. *nudge nudge*
MOVIES
• MOONLIGHT - please please please go see it. it's poetry on screen, it's painful but never gratuitously violent, it's gorgeous and sexy and vulnerable and powerful, it's angsty and forgiving and so full of love found in sometimes unexpected places. i'm reluctant to say more because this movie really should be experienced; please see it and come talk to me about it.
• HELL OR HIGH WATER - saw this one in the theater, couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks; now it's on sale/streaming in a bunch of places and i warmly recommend checking it out. this movie uses the staple concepts of wild west, robbery, cowboy genres for a portrayal of contemporary american poverty; and it's an extraordinary deconstruction of the myth of white masculinity. beautiful cinematography; many genuinely hilarious lines; great performances. (+ scruffy chris pine, if that's particularly relevant to your interests.)
MUSIC
• NOTHING BUT THIEVES - the kind of rock music that gets under your skin and lives in your heartbeat for months; if i had to make a comparison, foals come to mind first style-wise. love the ENTIRE album, they're amazing live, and they even have good merch (i wore one of their shirts at my party yesterday). lead singer sounds like the love child of jeff buckley and a theremin.
• CHVRCHES - ever since i saw their show last month at radio city music hall, i've been returning to their two albums (and wow, they are chock-full of bangers). sparkly-dark pop, beautiful vocals, music to jump-start kinetic energy.
• DESSA - "quinine" seems to be a stand-alone single, but oh, how i hope there's a new album on the way. (loveloveLOVE the song, too.)
....and that's all i got. hope you find something to enjoy.
***
in other news, i'm still heartsick over reality. my past experiences of living under a dictatorship feel worthless, not applicable half a world away and 20 years later. it's no use promoting a more socialist approach to understanding the role of government, when so many white people split up communal interests along racial lines. it's no use using the "we have been lied to" approach in the age of trutherism because... well. i've advised friends to keep track of how things are changing around them, and who stands for what among their social circles, because history won't record the minutiae of everyday life - the life we all need to keep living, and in which someday we'll need to know whom we can trust with our freedom and safety. because the political split is not a geographically clean division, and a little visibility can go a long way, especially as fact and history get blown up by the new regime which is already setting up mechanisms for its own infallibility (because optics are everything). the framework was already in place, carved out 16 years ago at another election, and now put to use in a far more extreme scenario than any of us could have imagined... and yet. and yet.
so, we keep going. we keep track. we keep hoping, because the alternative is devastation. and we keep holding up each other, because that's what we do.
Now also available on that other site!
anyway, in case you haven't had enough sap on your timeline this weekend... i am thankful beyond words for my friends who have shared this celebration with me year after year, contributing amazing dishes and delicious booze, finding common fannish ground even though our interests have all diverged many times over the years (except for GHOSTBUSTERS! oh, and i believe "eyewitness" might have reunited a good many of us once again in a tv fandom), and miraculously cramming into the woefully limited space in my apartment for a day of drinks, chill, laughter, and shared squee. (confession: after the party, it takes me a few weeks to put all the furniture back where it belongs - because for as long as that extra chair is in the living room, my place still feels like a party space for fangirls.)
and if i'm not around beyond this year to continue the tradition, i sincerely hope it will live on among the group of friends i'd made here.
so, in the spirit of fannish enjoyment, here are some things that make me happy these days.
TEEVEE:
• PITCH - oh my god, i love ginny so much my heart hurts. amazing performances; sharp, fun, & insightful look into the world and community of pro sports; stories at the intersections of gender and race and class; ali larter <3. (also mark-paul gosselaar who is apparently unrecognizable w that beard, and it's a special delight to witness people figure it out. heh.)
• EYEWITNESS - come for the primary plot of boys kissing and being desperately into each other but super conflicted and angsty and OMG SO MANY TROPES AND SO MUCH HOTNESS... and stay for a fantastic portrayal of complex, layered, fascinating adults (mostly women, at that). season's best surprise, hands down. it's a 10-ep season and you can stream it w cable via usa's site, or buy it on VOD; trust me, it is very, very worth it.
• SUPERGIRL - the heart of the show is kara's relationship with her sister alex, and alex is THE MOST AMAZING; her arc this season is some of the most personal, realistic, powerful storytelling i've seen on television. best superhero show; sweetest, most hopeful, kindest without being dumbed down or oversimplified.
• THE EXORCIST - ben daniels plays a canonically (heh) gay priest & has mad chemistry with another priest, who is almost painfully pretty (he's played by lito's boyfriend from sense8). together they exorcise demons, have very passionate and physical, uh, discussions and disagreements, and also share a tremendous level of trust out of necessity (help-with-collar-appending scene included - seriously, they hit SO MANY buttons, y'all). the show is pretty gross and on occasion quite scary, which means i only watch it in daylight; still, they keep delivering emotional truth at moments when i expect camp, so i'm surprisingly hooked even beyond the hot priests plot line.
• ELEMENTARY - ah, it continues to be so good! and the characters keep GROWING in believable ways! i love sherlock and joan's partnership, the way they are developing as people, the way their circle of friends and colleagues weaves a wonderful sense of community. also, that's the city i live in; i can actually recognize it on screen, and it looks pretty damn real.
• BROOKLYN 99 - favorite comedy. i was going through such painful withdrawal between seasons that, over the course of 2 weeks, i finally mainlined the entirety of PARKS & REC (which i also warmly, warmly recommend - tho feel free to skip the first season). and now it's back, and the only way i could be happier is if holt's husband made an appearance every once in a while. *nudge nudge*
MOVIES
• MOONLIGHT - please please please go see it. it's poetry on screen, it's painful but never gratuitously violent, it's gorgeous and sexy and vulnerable and powerful, it's angsty and forgiving and so full of love found in sometimes unexpected places. i'm reluctant to say more because this movie really should be experienced; please see it and come talk to me about it.
• HELL OR HIGH WATER - saw this one in the theater, couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks; now it's on sale/streaming in a bunch of places and i warmly recommend checking it out. this movie uses the staple concepts of wild west, robbery, cowboy genres for a portrayal of contemporary american poverty; and it's an extraordinary deconstruction of the myth of white masculinity. beautiful cinematography; many genuinely hilarious lines; great performances. (+ scruffy chris pine, if that's particularly relevant to your interests.)
MUSIC
• NOTHING BUT THIEVES - the kind of rock music that gets under your skin and lives in your heartbeat for months; if i had to make a comparison, foals come to mind first style-wise. love the ENTIRE album, they're amazing live, and they even have good merch (i wore one of their shirts at my party yesterday). lead singer sounds like the love child of jeff buckley and a theremin.
• CHVRCHES - ever since i saw their show last month at radio city music hall, i've been returning to their two albums (and wow, they are chock-full of bangers). sparkly-dark pop, beautiful vocals, music to jump-start kinetic energy.
• DESSA - "quinine" seems to be a stand-alone single, but oh, how i hope there's a new album on the way. (loveloveLOVE the song, too.)
....and that's all i got. hope you find something to enjoy.
***
in other news, i'm still heartsick over reality. my past experiences of living under a dictatorship feel worthless, not applicable half a world away and 20 years later. it's no use promoting a more socialist approach to understanding the role of government, when so many white people split up communal interests along racial lines. it's no use using the "we have been lied to" approach in the age of trutherism because... well. i've advised friends to keep track of how things are changing around them, and who stands for what among their social circles, because history won't record the minutiae of everyday life - the life we all need to keep living, and in which someday we'll need to know whom we can trust with our freedom and safety. because the political split is not a geographically clean division, and a little visibility can go a long way, especially as fact and history get blown up by the new regime which is already setting up mechanisms for its own infallibility (because optics are everything). the framework was already in place, carved out 16 years ago at another election, and now put to use in a far more extreme scenario than any of us could have imagined... and yet. and yet.
so, we keep going. we keep track. we keep hoping, because the alternative is devastation. and we keep holding up each other, because that's what we do.
Now also available on that other site!