#susan whitman

[truthaboutthebeatlesgirls]

March 11, 1964

George Harrison and Ringo Starr with Pattie Boyd, Susan Whitman, Tina Williams, and Pru Bury on the set of A Hard Day’s Night, Twickenham Film Studios, London. (March 12th, 1964) (Note: I’ve seen this photo circulated on Tumblr before, but why not have it now in HQ!)

[evilhorse]

Fantastic Four (Volume 7) #28

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have S.W.A.T. 1975-1976

[pluralsword]

as far as Elita One's writing in One goes we think it's a bad sign that Elita's ability to pull chief of staff-esque leadership as second in command that OP could not possibly be present for all of and in fact needs a second person to handle since he has to be a generalist because of his position and he also needs to be kept out of the loop sometimes was something that was really only something one could infer from familiarity with Elita's previous appearance in media and possibly knowledge of how executive leadership works is generally a bad sign. The movie needed another 30 minutes to effectively show Elita is supposed to be the Russell Jackson or Jay Whitman to Presidents Dalton or McCord, or Commander Susan Ivanova or Elizabeth Lockley to Commander Sinclair or President Sheridan.

we didn't have that, so it's very easy to come away from the movie thinking Elita is being depicted as a more competent leader not so fun gal (even though she is shown to be fun) deferring to a recklessly creative dreamer Optimus Prime. We don't really get to see her advise him on policy except the time she defers to him, keep him from getting entangled in things that will kill him. we do get to see her take the lead on handling the Decepticons to make sure they follow through with the revoluton, but we don't get to see her lead a group of Autobots on her own. so it just. as much as we enjoyed One we felt like this and her not having another gal on her side to talk to who had a major role was one of the major points of the movie that could have been better. Arcee could have been given a larger role but that would have required more introspection on who Arcee is than the film was perhaps prepared to do (the visual artists sure seemed to understand what with the arcee design convergence they went for, and it would have been nice for that to be followed up on)

like. legit I think the only reason our immediate family we saw this with wasn't discussing the gender dynamics of the film (besides them asking where was Arcee in the film LMAO) was because we all had outside of film information from study about how government and revolutions work to fill in. we think we get what the movie was going for but Elita needed more interiority. So did Solus and Arcee. And Airachnid, frankly. What was her motive in any of this? Will we find out in a sequel?

The movie's main theme is bodily autonomy, which we loved! It was great! This is one of our favorite films, period, of anything! But that doesn't mean we think there wasn't room to improve. All art is like that, though, so please don't take this as a 'you can't enjoy TF One because trans feminism' and more as 'it would be nice to see more stories in the future that go deeper in the stories of fem-spectrum characters and gender expansive people when navigating this subject in science fiction, and especially when said characters are transforming alien robots. it would be nice to have a written as transfem character in a film you really need only ask a transfem to look over what you're doing and get one to voice one but godsdamn it would be cool if one was given a shot at writing' you get the idea

[velociraptorsaurusrex]

1x02 Tempered Steele // Casablanca (1942) // 1x18 Steele in the News // 2x03 Red Holt Steele // Reborn, Susan Sontag // “Divers,” Divers, Joanna Newsom // 1x17 Steele Among the Living // “Kingfisher,” Have One on Me, Joanna Newsom // 1x11 Steeling the Show // 1x10 Steele Trap // 1x07 Etched in Steele // combined translations of Ovid's Pygmalion // 3x05 Blue Blooded Steele // 1x12 Steele Flying High // 3x01 Steele at It // Pygmalion and Galatea, W.S. Gilbert, Act I, pp15 // “The Creation to the Creator,” Mildred Pluma Foulke // 2x04 Altared Steele // 2x19 Dreams of Steele // Genesis 1:27 // 3x06 Steele Your Heart Away // Genesis 2:23 // 3x21 Steele Trying // Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, pp179 // “To Helen,” Frank Marshall Davis // Herman Melville letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nov. [17?] 1851 // 2x01 Steele Away With Me // “Act,” León Salvatierra, trans. Javier O. Huerta // 4x01 Steele Searching // “Corpse Song,” Margaret Atwood // Job 10:8-9 // The Eye, Vladimir Nabokov, pp?? I only have an ebook // Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, 2.2.46-55 // 4x02 Steele Searching // 4x07 Premium Steele // Dark Passage (1947) // ���Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman // “Now I Become Myself,” May Sarton // “Sacred Emily,” Gertrude Stein // “Recreation,” Audre Lorde // s1 intro voiceover

[tomorrowusa]

Republicans for Kamala is taking off and includes some high profile former office holders and staffers. This is more than just the usual handful of mid level and obscure officials.

At least three former governors including Jim Edgar of Illinois (1991-1999) have publicly announced their support for the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Nine days into her 2024 candidacy, Vice President Kamala Harris picked a couple of notable Republican endorsements: Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan threw his support behind the Democrat fairly quickly, and John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona’s third-largest city, endorsed her soon after. Given the state of the cotemporary GOP, it’s not easy for any Democratic candidate to pick up cross-party backing, so this represented a decent start. But hanging overhead was an obvious question: Would other Republicans soon follow? The question received a rather emphatic answer over the weekend. NBC News reported: >> The Harris campaign on Sunday unveiled more than two dozen endorsements from Republicans, including former governors, members of Congress and Trump administration officials. Many of the endorsements came from politicians who were already openly critical of former President Donald Trump, including former Republican Gov. Bill Weld of Massachusetts; former Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va.; and former Trump administration press secretary Stephanie Grisham.<< Those names are, of course, just a sampling. According to a press statement from the incumbent vice president’s campaign, Republicans for Harris includes endorsements from former Trump White House officials Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye; former Secretaries Chuck Hagel and Ray LaHood; former Governors Jim Edgar, Bill Weld, and Christine Todd Whitman; former U.S. House members Rod Chandler, Tom Coleman, Dave Emery, Wayne Gilchrest, Jim Greenwood, Adam Kinzinger, John LeBoutillier, Susan Molinari, Jack Quinn, Denver Riggleman, Claudine Schneider, Christopher Shays, Peter Smith, Alan Steelman, David Trott, and Joe Walsh; and former GOP State Chair and State Senator Chris Vance, among others. “As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for President,” Kinzinger said in a written statement. “But, I know Vice President Harris will defend our democracy and ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House. Donald Trump poses a direct threat to fundamental American values. He only cares about himself, and his pursuit of power. “That’s what we saw on January 6 when he sent a mob to overturn our lawful election, who violently attacked law enforcement and ransacked our nation’s Capitol in the process,” the former member of the Jan. 6 committee added. “There’s too much at stake to sit on the sidelines, which is why I wholeheartedly endorse Kamala Harris for president. Now is the time for us all to unite to save our democracy and defeat Donald Trump one last time.”

[broadwaydivastournament]

Broadway Divas: Obscure Sondheim

To highlight how vast and varied Sondheim's roles and shows are, these five Divas have a singular Sondheim credit to their repertoire that are a little more obscure than most. So obscure that my dream of finding pictures to dazzle you all with was quickly shattered.

Bebe Neuwirth as Cinderella's Stepsister, Florinda, in a reading of Into the Woods for a 1994 movie that never came to fruition. This reading took place at director Penny Marshall's house and had a truly breathtaking cast: Robin Williams (The Baker), Goldie Hawn (The Baker's Wife), Steve Martin (The Wolf), Danny DeVito (The Giant), Carrie Fisher (Lucinda), and fucking CHER as The Witch. Bebe Neuwirth and Carrie Fisher as catty sisters tormenting Cinderella and getting their eyes pecked out. And then Cher trying to feed them to Danny DeVito. We were robbed of a masterpiece.

Judith Light as Joanne in a Reprise! presentation of Company at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Though not known for her singing abilities, Judith was nevertheless part of an all-star cast for this two-week run in 2004. The only review I could find was...not favorable. It's been twenty years, and I, for one, think Judith Light deserves her chance at redemption.

Linda Emond as Mary in Merrily We Roll Along, 1988. The Seattle-based ACT company produced Sondheim's biggest flop musical through the month of May in 1988. Linda, then in her late twenties, played the female lead in a rare musical role for her. And I do have a picture thanks to ACT's fantastic archival system.

Pictured: Linda Emond (Mary) center, surrounded by Joseph Dellger (Franklin Shepherd) and Joseph McNally (Charley). And no, I cannot tell which man is which...

4. Susan Blackwell as The Giant in a 2019 one-night-only staged concert of Into the Woods. If you thought the recent Broadway revival was bare-bones, it had nothing on this staged concert at the Town Hall in NYC. There is one singular photo that includes Susan, and without knowing she was meant to be there, you'd never be able to identify her.

Pictured (L to R):

5. Paula Leggett Chase as Stella Deems in Follies, a one-night-only special event in Tangier, Morocco featuring a transcontinental cast of Divas. Since 2013 (excluding pandemic years), Rob Ashford has staged fundraising productions of shows such as A Little Night Music, The Crucible, and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Confusingly, though Paula sang Stella Deems' song "Who's That Woman," she was credited in the program as Emily Whitman (presumably they just combined the roles for this production and gave them to the dancer in the cast?)

Pictured (L to R): The late Haydn Gwynn (Phyllis Rogers Stone, my beloved), Marisa Berenson (Solange LaFitte), Harolyn Blackwell (Heidi Schiller), Jenna Russel (Sally Durant Plummer), Paula Leggett Chase (Emily Whitman), Harriet Harris (Hattie Walker).

[dykeseinfeld]

bull durham is such a dangerous movie bc if i don't have susan sarandon tie me up and read me walt whitman asap i may die

[nerdyvocals]

Final round of episode quotes as @look-at-those-niceass-rocks and I finished our final watch party. Once again, the cast and crew are in the house, so @saveourpinks, please enjoy. (You can find previous posts with more unhinged quotes here and here)

Honorable mention from before we actually started, them waking their husband up with: wake up, it's time for me to see gay shit

Second honorable mention, a conversation had while I struggled with my audio: Them: I tried to show [Husband] Merely Players last night but he was too tired Me: I can't believe your husband is homophobic Them: I AGREE Husband, distantly: I don't deserve this!

(about Buddy) God his shoulders, he's built like a Dorito

(this is specifically in reference to episode 8 but honestly, this was said multiple times throughout our watching) Me: WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH COMMUNISM??? Them: It's the 50s! If it ain't American, it's communist!

Me: I love that Buddy's dad's name is Dick Them: It was a choice

(In reference to Blandiels) He makes me SO uncomfortable. Like I know that that's the point but he's so slimy-NO NO STOP, STOP KISSING HER, FUCK-!

(roughly three minutes of us screaming over Lydia's Woman Scorned (tm) dress, followed by another three minutes of us laughing at the faces everyone was making when I pause the video)

(about Susan's mom) Me: Heinous fucking bitch Them: What. A raging. CUNT.

(after we both spent a Hot Minute thirsting over Cynthia dancing on the car) Them: I talk a big game but if I was within five feet of this person, I would be just staring and stammering Husband, distantly: We know honey Them: SHUT UP

(both of us wheezing over CGI!Richie)

Cops: *show up* Us: *John Mulaney voice* SCATTER

Them: NOT THE LINE I'VE LOST THE ONE I LOVE THE MOST AS SHE PICKS UP OLIVIA'S JACKET Me: They are simply In Love

Them: He's gonna do something stupid, I can feel it. Me: You don't know the half of it! Them: He's gonna propose to a teenager! (okay maybe they do know the half of it, fuckin' prophet)

Me: *reading off episode titles as it starts storming where I am* And this one is called You're Dropping Out of Rydell- thank you dramatic thunder???

(honorable mention, me being unable to tell what was real thunder and what was from the episode)

Them: I'm not emotionally ready for this Me: Me neither and I've seen it like eight times already

Nancy: *dramatic exit* Them: She's so dramatic and I respect her and only her

Me: I love you singing along to a theme song with no lyrics Them: Sometimes I just gotta make funky little noises!

(About Nicholson) I am going to break that man's ball sack with a driver.

Them: It's giving pouty little bitch Me: Which one? (referring to Buddy and his dad) Them: Yes

Cynthia: *walks in in Richie's Jacket* Me: Hello my name is Single and Gay Them: I am not single but I am gay and I think... I don't think, I have no thoughts, head empty

(About McGee, then the scene transitions to Daniels) Them: The only adult in this school I respect- I AM GOING TO KILL HIM WITH MY BARE HANDS! Me, wheezing: What about your human hands? Them: THOSE TOO

(said in the most disgusted voice I've ever heard) Of course he likes Walt Whitman

Them: [Husband], I'm killing the pedophile, wanna help? Husband: Let's be honest, do you really need my help? Them: Someone's gotta drive the car.

Them: "Feelings central?" I bet you were feeling sensual when you were making out with Olivia-LYDIA on your couch earlier Me: ...You good there? Them: The names are too close

(Face to Face begins) Ah, dramatic acapella is my gender

Me: Once again, love how much you hate Buddy Them: He's had so many chances to earn my respect and he has done nothing!

Guardian Demon: *appears* Them: What. The fuck. Is happening? Me: BEAUTY SCHOOL DROPOUT BABEY

(@ Buddy) Them: He's not a total ding-dong. Just like 80% Me: He did just thank her (Susan) for having sex with him Them: ...85%

(About the Red Sox analogy) Cynthia giving me Gender Euphoria with one sentence

Nancy: *talking about love stories, mentions Shy Guy* Both of us: *Cackling at the full-body never mind Cynthia does*

Nancy: Tell anyone of my vulnerable nature and I will deny it until the day I die! Them: FUCKING MOOD like I know I was literally also just crying but we're gonna move past that, I'm a bad bitch again

Me: Finale time! Any thought or predictions before we get started? Them: Leonard gets arrested and as he's being taken away, he gets hit by a semi truck- Me: What is this, Mean Girls??? Them: Yes! McGee punches the principal in the face and defeats him in blood combat and cements her place as principal- Me: *slowly dissolving into horrified laughter* Them: Cynthia gets to kiss Lydia again, which is all I really need to be happy, and terrifying CGI Richie comes back and does the Macarena! Me: *can't start the episode for five minutes because I'm laughing too hard*

(Ten seconds in) PAUSE THIS I HAVE BEEF THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY OF GETTING MARRIED THAT QUICKLY IN A CATHOLIC CHURCH

(after rant) Me: Yeah but the tensions wouldn't be as high if they had six months to stop the wedding! Them: ...there are two wolves inside of me, one says valid, and one is formerly Catholic and Upsetti

Me: I want a shirt that says "I have two wolves inside of me, one of them is Catholic" and nothing else Them: *WHEEZE*

Cynthia: He's just. Some guy. Both of us, in sync: HIT HIM WITH YOUR CAR

"Old Soul" is groomer for "Fuckable"

(@ Gil climbing in through the window) Me: On the one hand, I'd fold, on the other? Terrifying! Them: YES! Me: Although I guess if I had the rapport with someone that they have?? Maybe?? Like good in media, bad in real life. Them: Gil? Yes, absolutely. Edward Cullen? Fuck no! The two genres of climbing through my window

(after the drag race) YET ANOTHER THING BUDDY DID NOT EARN

Me: Hey, do you have tissues? Them (afraid): ...should I get some??? Me: Maybe Them: I don't think I have any in the house??? Me: Ah! You're fucked!

*ten minute interlude of us crying over the Coming Out Scene, discussing what it means to both of us, and how furious we are of future generations not getting to see the best queer rep of our lifetimes if this show doesn't get saved. On that note, sign the petition if you haven't already.*

THEY STARTED BY STEALING A CAR THEY WILL SAVE THE FRIENDSHIP BY STEALING A CAR

Oh someone please hit hi- YESSSSS!!!

(at the start of All In) Me: She (Cynthia) is going to cry Them: I'm going to cry Me: I'm already crying

Me: Lydia is stronger than I am I would already be on my knees. (note I use a cane and sometimes a wheelchair, if I am on my knees I Will Not be Getting Up)

Me: Hopelessly Devoted walked so this song could fucking run Them: I WAS ABOUT TO SAY THE SAME THING

Pink Ladies: *Offer Hazel a jacket* Them: *aggressively close to the mic* That sounds very gay I'm in

Them: I cannot take my eyes off Jane. Like they are all very beautiful right now but there's something about her- Me: It's the bisexual energy Them: ...Dammit, you're right

Rizzo: We'll start our own gang! Them: With blackjack and hookers!

(Introduction of Frankie Zuko) Them: I'm sorry, HUH???

(As credits roll) Me: So, how we feelin'? Them: Normal, I am so normal, I am feeling so fucking normal about this. Me: Thoughts? Them: *incoherent screaming*

We had some much fun doing these, we decided to keep a quotes list for more movie nights. Next up, Julie and the Phantoms!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Zeke Miller at AP, via HuffPost:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Sunday was launching “Republicans for Harris” as she looks to win over Republican voters put off by Donald Trump’s candidacy. The program will be a “campaign within a campaign,” according to Harris’ team, using well-known Republicans to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The program will kick off with events this week in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Republicans backing Harris will also appear at rallies with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate this coming week, the campaign said.

The Harris campaign shared the details of the program first with The Associated Press before the official announcement. Her team is trying to create “a permission structure” for GOP voters who would otherwise have a difficult time voting for Harris. The effort will rely heavily on Republican-to-Republican voter contact, with the belief that the best way to get a Republican to vote for Harris is to hear directly from another Republican making the same choice. Trump’s “extremism is toxic to the millions of Republicans who no longer believe the party of Donald Trump represents their values” and will vote against him again in November, said Harris’ national director of Republican outreach, Austin Weatherford. He said the campaign would be “showing up and taking the time every single day to earn the vote of Republicans who believe in putting country over party and know that every American deserves a president who will protect their freedoms and a commander in chief who will put the best interests of the American people above their own.” Weatherford is a onetime chief of staff to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who had endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket before President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump. Kinzinger is backing Harris once more as part of the launch.

“As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for President,” he said in a statement. “But, I know Vice President Harris will defend our democracy and ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House.” Kinzinger developed a national profile as one of two Republicans on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The committee highlighted a number of Trump’s transgressions before and during the deadly attack as Congress tried to certify the results of the 2020 election that Biden won over Trump.

[...] The Harris campaign’s effort includes former Govs. Bill Weld of Massachusetts and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and 16 former Republican members of Congress, including Kinzinger and Reps. Joe Walsh of Illinois and Susan Molinari of New York. All have been notable critics of Trump in the past. Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham is also endorsing Harris.

Republicans For Harris is launched to serve traditionally GOP-leaning voters turned off by Donald Trump.

[evilhorse]

You melted down your Ebony Blade?

(Fantastic Four Volume 7 #28)

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: Among the Living

👻 You can support me on Ko-Fi! ❤️

★★★

Plot: A wealthy man's imprisoned twin brother, believed dead, breaks free and leaves behind him a trail of violence.

Review: As intriguing as it is unrealistic, this film is served well by its strong leads and ideas, despite a dated handling of mental illness.

Year: 1941 Genre: Psychological Horror, Noir Country: United States Language: English Runtime: 1 hour 9 minutes

Director: Stuart Heisler Writers: Garrett Fort, Lester Cole Cinematographer: Theodor Sparkuhl Editor: Everett Douglas Composer: Gerard Carbonara Cast: Albert Dekker, Harry Carey, Susan Hayward, Frances Farmer, Gordon Jones, Jean Phillips, Ernest Whitman

------

Story: 3/5 - Dated treatment of mental illness aside, its biggest failure is how it plays its silly concept so straight. Still, there are moments of genuine tension and intrigue.

Performances: 4/5 - Hayward is wonderfully charming, and Dekker is great as the violent yet innocent Paul, evoking moments of genuine sympathy. His John is a bit flat, but that is more the fault of the story.

Cinematography: 3.5/5 - Solid use of shadows and creative angles.

Editing: 4/5 - The chaotic bar scene is perfectly frantic in its editing.

Music: 2.5/5 - Appropriate albeit a bit generic.

Effects & Props: 4/5 - Paul and John appear on screen together fairly seamlessly.

Sets: 3.5/5 - Decent, though the Raden house feels cartoony.

Costumes, Hair, & Make-Up: 4/5

Trigger Warnings:

Mild violence

Gendered violence

Brief discussion of domestic abuse

Dated portrayal and stigmatization of mental illness

Uncritical portrayal of black men as domestic workers

[lesser-known-composers]

Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923) - Four Songs from Five Poems of Walt Whitman (1957)

1. Look Down, Fair Moon 2. O You Whom I Often and Silently Come 3. Sometimes With One I Love 4. That Shadow, My Likeness

Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano & Malcolm Martineau, piano

[itsnotgoingtotranslate]

"That is the quality which dance music has — no other: it stirs some barbaric instinct — lulled asleep in our sober lives — you forget centuries of civilization in a second, & yield to that strange passion which sends you madly whirling round the room — oblivious of everything save that you must keep swaying with the music — in & out, round & round — in the eddies & swirls of the violins. It is as though some swift current of water swept you along with it. It is magic music."

Virginia Woolf

"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent."

Victor Hugo

"After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

Aldous Huxley

"Jazz is the music of the body. The breath comes through brass. It is the body’s breath, and the strings’ wails and moans are echoes of the body’s music. It is the body’s vibrations which ripple from the fingers. And the mystery of the withheld theme, known to jazz musicians alone, is like the mystery of our secret life. We give to others only peripheral improvisations."

Anaïs Nin

"Music, the combiner, nothing more spiritual, nothing more sensuous, a god, yet completely human, advances, prevails, holds highest place; supplying in certain wants and quarters what nothing else could supply."

Walt Whitman

[periwinklemeanderings]

50 Short Classics you should try by Ruby Granger (Youtube channel) - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - The Greengage Summer - Animal Farm by George Orwell -Breakfast at Tiffany's -De Profundis by Oscar Wilde - The Stranger/  The Outsider by Albert Camus -  Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville - A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Diamond as Big as the Ritz by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Songs of Innocence and Experience - Macbeth - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland -Fahrenheit 451 - The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass -  Ariel by Sylvia Plath -. Picnic at Hanging Rock - The Nutcracker - The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe - On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts - On the Pleasure of Hating - The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka - The Professor's House - Death in Venice - Meditations by Descartes - Meno by Plato - Hero and Leander - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift - Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson -The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (and other short stories) by Ursula K. Le Guin - Blithe Spirit -The Woman in Black by Susan Hill - The Problem of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - Oranges are Not the Only Fruit -Don't Look Now (and other short stories) by Daphne Du Maurier - Song of Myself by Walt Whitman - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett -The Sandman by  E. T. A. Hoffmann -The Waste Land by T.S. Elliot - A Night to Remember - The Painter of Modern Life by Charles Baudelaire - The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie - I am David by Anne Holm.

[terrainofheartfelt]

Do u have any book and movie recommendations?

sooooo many. you might regret asking.

I love books very very much, just in case you didn't know, so let me fire off at random some of my all time faves with and without blurbs.

poetry: Devotions, Mary Oliver | No Matter the Wreckage, Sarah Kay | Leaves of Grass, Whitman | Post Colonial Love Poem, Natalie Diaz

nonfiction:

My Life in France, Julia Child --- her memoir of moving to France with her husband post WWII and her discovery of cooking and deciding to write her cookbook and it's so charming and so her and it's just a delight

Open Me Carefully, Emily Dickinson --- a chronological collection of letters, poems, and letter-poems Emily sent to her lover sister-in-law Susan Dickinson. it's intimate, playful, kind, passionate, and the editors do a great job of putting it all together. and you read it and just know that you are only skimming the surface of the deep love these two women had for each other i gotta lie down

What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding, Kristin Newman --- funny sexy travel memoir by a TV writer who spent her hiatus months in the aughts summers by traveling solo and having whirlwind romances and also her reconciliation between being the woman who can't be tied down but also wanting to build a life with a partner.

The Real Traviata, Rene Weis --- an opera book because me. a biography about Marie Duplessis, the French woman who inspired Dumas to write La Dame aux Camellias and therefore Verdi's Traviata and THEREFORE Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge. she had by the most objective accounts a difficult and short life full of fear and illness and abuse but also full of strength and color and love and I found it really moving.

fiction: aka the novels I am thinking most about right now.

House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende --- an all time favorite. a historical, multigenerational epic that left me staring at the ceiling after finishing it. and cemented Allende's place as one of my fave authors

The Sentence, Louise Erdrich --- it's about ghosts and independent bookstores and indigenous women and community and love and trust and the pandemic. great novel.

Sex and Vanity, Kevin Kwan --- people are always looking for who they should crown the modern Jane Austen, and it's him. it's kevin kwan. this is a modern remix of A Room with a View and it is funny and sexy and sweet and was a delight to read.

Beautiful World, Where Are You, Sally Rooney --- my favorite of hers. I love how the chapters of story are interspersed with emails between the two leads. yes there's romance, but the real center of this story is the friendship between the two women.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong --- entirely lives up to the tumblr hype. possibly exceeds the tumblr hype. I told my best friend to read this book. which she did. then scolded me because while she agrees it's beautiful it's also so heartbreaking. truly some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read. I checked it out from the library but i really want a copy of my own to mark up.

Bright Young Women, Jessica Knoll (out Oct. 3rd) --- i got this ARC at the librarian convention. I'm in the middle of it right now but I have to talk it up because it is sooooo good. It's about women who meet because they have the worst possible thing in common: their best friend was murdered by the same serial killer. It hops around between the '70s and the present day, reads like a thriller, and the thesis is really about destroying the myth of the criminal mastermind, a la all those true crime docs about dahmer and bundy. I'm almost halfway through and the murderer is only referred to as "The Defendant." It's about taking the narrative away from him, the universal defendant, and recentering it around the exceptional women whose lives he ended and/or destroyed. Again, please check it out when it comes out this fall. But be forewarned that the subject matter is dark.

as for MOVIES, well, if I tried to make a list like the one above I'd be here all day, so why don't I just list a handful that I consider central to understanding who I am as a person:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The Life of Brian

The Blues Brothers

The Princess Diaries 1 AND 2

Little Women (2019)

Juno

The Holiday

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Star Wars, the OG and prequel trilogies

and, last winter I stumbled across The Four Seasons starring Alan Alda and Carol Burnett, and I thought it was delightful.