Looking Back at Lorena Bobbitt

April 10, 2019 Mary

Producer Jordan Peele and Lorena Bobbitt promoting the new documentary.

Some cultural events seep into the public consciousness, even if the vast majority of people didn’t experience the situation as it happened. Thanks to television and documentaries, I know quite a bit about the OJ Simpson case, yet very little about the cases of John Wayne and Lorena Bobbitt that happened shortly before. Sure, I’ve heard Lorena cut her husband’s penis off and threw it out her car window, but why? Like Princess Weekes notes in her piece for The Mary Sue, perhaps she did it because he cheated on her, or because she was “crazy.” I never really looked into it, and it seems so long ago now.

The Wonderfully Brutal Honesty of "Just Between Us"

April 6, 2019 Kelli

New from Stitcher, Just Between Us is a brand new podcast created by comedians Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin, “co-dependent” best friends with professional expertise in everything from “being bad at money” to “walking fast.” You may be thinking, “but Kelli, this is already a thing,” and you would be right; the podcast is something like a continuation of the wildly successful Just Between Us Youtube channel Dunn and Raskin started nearly five years ago. I was not familiar with the channel until recently, but Just Between Us has over 730,000 subscribers, which just goes to show you that I don’t really know anything about Youtube.

Like the Youtube channel, Just Between Us (The Podcast) is primarily an exploration of female friendship. Unlike the Youtube channel, where Raskin and Dunn often play heightened versions of themselves, the podcast is very real — or, perhaps better put in their show opener: “brutally honest.” And with just four episodes under their belt, Raskin and Dunn have more than delivered on their tagline’s promise.

Survivor S38e08: “I’m the Puppet Master”

April 5, 2019 Todd & Mary

Hey everyone! We missed last week because we were SO SHOCKED by that TWIST (j/k, but welcome back Devens!). In other events, Joe did not win the immunity challenge (Julie won! You go Julie!), and instead of trying to convince the Kama 6 not to vote him out, he painted a phoenix on the merged tribe’s new flag. And then, Joe was voted out! But he immediately went to the Edge of Extinction. If you have other thoughts on that episode, or any Survivor thoughts, leave them in the comments section below, but without further ado, let’s jump into this week’s episode of...Survivor!

EDGE.

OF.

EXTINCTION!

Wheel of Time Dream Cast

April 3, 2019 Mary

I’ve been reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan slowly but surely, taking long pauses to read for the podcast and my dissertation (which also feels slow but sure). I’ve written about what parts of Jordan’s epic fantasy I enjoy, but I admit that it’s hard for me to picture what’s happening in the novel. With so many unfamiliar worlds (that are different than other fantasy novels I’ve read) and words (seriously, how do you pronounce ter’angreal or sa’angreal?), my brain protects itself by blipping over the unfamiliar. Sure, I know what certain words look like, and I know the emotions and motivations of characters, but the details sometimes get lost. I don’t have a reference.

Amazon Studios obtained the rights to adapt the series, and plans to release season one of their hour long Wheel of Time drama, helmed by Rafe Judkins (of Agents of SHIELD fame, and also the campy Netflix show Hemlock Grove), doesn’t have many details yet--no release date, no cast, no nothing. I’m here to give us the fan cast we deserve. So without further deliberation, I give you...Mary’s dream Wheel of Time Cast! [Some spoilers for the Wheel of Time series to follow, but TBH the books came out in the early 90s and I am just now reading them myself, soooooo consider the spoilers light at best]

Summer Movie Anti-Preview: 10 Summer Movies Most Likely to Suck

March 30, 2019 Emily

We’re a little over a month away from the summer movie season, and you know what that means.

Summer movie trailers are in full swing. As an avid film watcher with OPINIONS, I have already made a lot of decisions about which movies I’m excited to see and which movies are most likely to disappoint. So of course, I am absolutely ready and armed to give you my full on summer movie preview.

But what’s the fun in being positive? We all know summer is the season where studios drop all of their big budget crowd-pleasing movies that will get butts in seats but aren’t likely to be winning any awards. In other words, most of these movies are going to be crap, my dudes. But which ones are the most likely to be terrible and/or disappointing? Well, here are my predictions, from least terrible to most terrible. And… go!

The Fyre Festival of Silicon Valley: Why I'm Obsessed with Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos

March 28, 2019 Susan

2019 is the year fraud documentaries assume the mantle formerly held by murder documentaries in 2017-2018. Fraud is having a real pop culture moment, and I, for one, am super on board. This month, HBO blessed us with The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, a documentary about “innovator” and business founder Elizabeth Holmes and her ill-fated healthcare startup, Theranos.

Us vs. Us: Our Spoiler-Heavy Review of Jordan Peele's "Us"

March 23, 2019 Mary & Emily

Us is the sophomore follow-up to Jordan Peele’s highly successful critically acclaimed horror movie Get Out, which Mary and Emily both loved. So there was a lot of expectations and excitement over here at the #BookSquadGoals camp for this latest movie. Naturally, Mary and Emily went to see this movie the day it came out and had to get their thoughts down immediately.

With a movie like this, there is a lot to process and there’s a lot going on, so please keep that in mind. Were they better people, perhaps Mary and Emily would have been responsible and would have gone to see this another one or two times before committing their thoughts to the written word. But they’re both too eager for that. And as you’ll soon discover, we are all our own worst enemies.

Naturally, all of the spoilers are to follow. Enter at your own risk.

9 Artist Instagrams to Fix Your Horrible Feed

March 22, 2019 Kelli

I think we can all agree that social media can be a real shitshow.

Here is a cycle I find myself in often: Because I tend to get my information about the world by following people and publications with voices I respect, my feed is invariably flooded with the day’s horrible events and everyone else’s loud opinions about them. When all of the noise starts to stress me out, I decide to switch gears and check out some of the frivolous fashion, lifestyle, and food accounts I follow, but then those accounts start to fill me either with FOMO or a general sense of inferiority. Stop looking at this stuff, I tell myself! It doesn’t matter anyway, the world is literally on fire! Read some news!!!

Switching back and forth between these two extremes is how I end up lying awake far past my bedtime, searching for some note of satisfaction to end the day on, and never, ever finding it. So far, there are only two corners of Instagram that really break the cycle for me: kittens and illustration.

I’m sure I’ll get to kittens eventually, but today I’m highlighting some of my favorite illustrators on Instagram. Follow them to inject a little bit of joy into that endless scroll.