Episode 112: BF Movie Touchstones

Somewhat in the spirit of Extra Hot Great’s television Canon, your hosts each assembled a list of favorite movies and agreed to make a universal Bellwether Friends list out of intersecting titles. In this episode, we reveal our picks to one another. Click here for the joint list! *sounds of paper rustling*

Links
Alene’s List (revised)
10 Things I Hate About You
The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
Amadeus
American Dreamer
Arsenic & Old Lace
Babe

Black Panther
Blockers
Booksmart
Cabin In The Woods
Charade
Clerks (Kevin Smith)
Coming To America
Cornetto Trilogy: Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End
Crazy Rich Asians
The Cutting Edge
D.E.B.S.
Deadpool, Deadpool 2

Desk Set
Desperately Seeking Susan
District 9
Easy A
Fargo (The Coen Brothers)

The Fasts And The Furiouses (all)
The Favourite
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes)
French Kiss
Get Out

Ghostbusters (2016)
Grosse Pointe Blank
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Hidden Figures
The Holiday
The House Bunny
How To Train Your Dragon (all)
Howl’s Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki)
Legally Blonde
Let The Right One In
Love Actually
Magic Mike, Magic Mike XXL
Moana

Moonlight
The Nine Lives of Christmas
Ocean’s 8
Out Of Sight
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
The Philadelphia Story
Pitch Perfect, Pitch Perfect 2, Pitch Perfect 3
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
Say Anything
The Silence Of The Lambs
Singles
Sleepless In Seattle
Sliding Doors

The Sound Of Music
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
Spy
Step Up (all)
Stranger Than Fiction
The Sure Thing
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
The Usual Suspects
The Vanishing (1988)
When Harry Met Sally
Wings Of Desire
Wonder Woman
Zombieland, Zombieland 2: Double Tap

Anna’s List (revised)
Beauty and the Beast
Best In Show
*Black Panther
Blades of Glory
The Blues Brothers
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Bring It On
*Charade
Clue
Clueless
Cold Comfort Farm
*Crazy Rich Asians
*The Cutting Edge
*D.E.B.S.
The Dead Don’t Die
Desert Hearts
Fire
*Get Out
*Grosse Pointe Blank
Halloween
Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
It’s In The Water
Labyrinth
A League Of Their Own
*Legally Blonde
Logan’s Run
The Lord Of The Rings trilogy
Mean Girls
The Meg
Miss Congeniality
*Moana
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
*Moonlight
Much Ado About Nothing
Mulan
The Music Man
*Ocean’s 8
The Parent Trap (both)
Persuasion
Pirates Of The Caribbean
*Pitch Perfect series
Pride and Prejudice (BBC)
The Princess Bride
Robin Hood (Disney)
Robin Hood (1938)
Romancing The Stone
A Room With A View
Saving Face
Say Anything
Singin’ In The Rain
Sleepless In Seattle
So I Married An Axe Murderer
*The Sound Of Music
Spaceballs
*Spy
Star Wars (original trilogy)
Strictly Ballroom
*To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
Wayne’s World
When Harry Met Sally

Anna’s Honorable Mentions
*10 Things I Hate About You
Adventures In Babysitting
*The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
The African Queen
Aladdin
American Pie
Annie
*Arsenic And Old Lace
Austin Powers
Back To The Future
Bend It Like Beckham
Better Off Dead
Captain Marvel
*Coming To America
The Craft
Crocodile Dundee
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
*Deadpool
Deliver Us From Eva
*Desk Set
*Fast and Furious franchise
*Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
*French Kiss
*Ghostbusters (2016)
Gia
The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Goonies
*Guardians of the Galaxy
Highlander
Jumanji (2017)
The Karate Kid
The Little Mermaid
Love & Basketball
Mad Max: Fury Road
*Magic Mike XXL
Meet Me In St. Louis
Moonraker
*The Nine Lives Of Christmas
*The Philadelphia Story
Short Circuit
Shrek
*The Silence Of The Lambs
Speed
*Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
Star Wars (new trilogy)
Tank Girl
Thor: Ragnarok
While You Were Sleeping
White Christmas
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Willow
*Wonder Woman

Other mentions:
The Thin Man
Sunset Boulevard
Wait Until Dark
Johnny Belinda
The Lady Eve
True Grit
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Blazing Saddles
The Harvey Girls
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Good Morning, Vietnam
Pearl Harbor
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
Top Gun

Musical Obsessions
Anna: Bad Blood by Taylor Swift
Alene: The Dead Don’t Die by Sturgill Simpson

Obsessions
Anna: To L and Back (podcast)
Alene: KissCon, Loretta Chase, Megan Frampton

Episode 100: Our Namesake! Connie Willis’s BELLWETHER with @papersquared, @twobossydames, and @aswatki1

Can you believe there have been a hundred episodes of Bellwether Friends? Well, there haven’t. THIS is the one hundredth episode! Carolyn, Margaret, Sophie, and Ally joined us to discuss our inspiration and beloved novel Bellwether, by our beloved and inspiring Connie Willis, complete with all the digressions you’ve come to love over our past 99 episodes, readalikes, and other suggestions!

Links
Connie Willis

Bellwether
Audiobook (read by Kate Reading)
YouTube: Technique Critique by Wired
Charles Entertainment Cheese
L.O.L. Surprise! dolls
Owlcrate Jr
Connie Willis on library weeding
Jo Walton on Bellwether
Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold
To Say Nothing of the Dog on Episode 31
Cory Doctorow on Bellwether

Exhibit A: Alene’s Bellwether tattoo

Read-/Listen-/Watchalikes
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
The Office
Level Up by Cathy Yardley
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Desk Set
Intermediate Thermodynamics by Susannah Nix
His Girl Friday
Working Girl
Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley

Each chapter begins with the description of a fad, such as the HULA HOOP

Musical Obsessions
Carolyn: A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (album) by The 1975, “Love Somebody Like You” by Joan
Ally: “Free Man in Paris” by Joni Mitchell
Margaret: “The Heartache Can Wait” by Brandi Carlile
Sophie: “Precious Lord Take My Hand/You’ve Got A Friend” by Aretha Franklin [mention: “Wonder Woman” by Kacey Musgraves]
Anna: “Somebody to Love” by Queen (or George Michael) [or Glee]
Alene: “When Can I See You Again” by Owl City from Wreck-It Ralph

Obsessions
Carolyn: family karaoke night
Ally: Amelia Bloomer Project committee reading
Margaret: NPR and Boston Globe Best Books coverage: The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding, Odd One Out by Nic Stone, Check Please by Ngozi Ukazu, The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang [mention: Fence by C. S. Pacat]
Sophie: Bodyguard (more in Two Bossy Dames)
Anna: Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart (there’s no sex in space!)
Alene: Not Your Sidekick and Not Your Villain by C. B. Lee

@aswatki1, @papersquared, @mrsfridaynext, @twobossydames, @atvpodcast, @sophiebiblio

Pop Culture Happy Hour on The Favourite

Episode 36: Fantasy and Book Covers with Robin Bradford

In this episode, we wax nostalgic about fantasy series of yore with Robin Bradford (aka @Tuphlos). Well, Anna and Robin wax while Alene wonders what she’s gotten herself into. Then we talk about what makes a good book cover and what makes a bad one, with a few examples. Feel free to send us your favorite/least favorite book covers on Twitter or Facebook!

Links
David and Leigh Eddings
“Recalling the Late David Eddings, Lord of Creation”
Dragonlance Chronicles
Susan Cooper
Lloyd Alexander
Daniel Jose Older
Song of Blood & Stone by L. Penelope
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

(gif borrowed from Heroes and Heartbreakers)

“Hardcover to Paperback Makeovers: 6+ Changes to Consider” from Stacked
“Why Do So Many of This Year’s Book Covers Have the Same Design Style?” from Slate
Christina Dodd and the Infamous Three-Armed Cover

Musical Obsessions
Robin: Prince! XM, Hoopla, your local library
Alene: “There is Power in a Union” by Billy Bragg
Anna: “Boyfriend” by Tegan and Sara

Obsessions
Robin: Baseball! White Sox, Mariners
Alene: Crosstalk by Connie Willis
Anna: Masks and Shadows by Stephanie Burgis

Episode 31: To Say Nothing of the Dog and Video Games

In this episode, we are joined by @semisponge (aka Anna’s parents’ other daughter) to discuss To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Which is a great book! We also dig in to the topic of video games with Kristina’s expert help.

Links
Connie Willis
Hugo Award
Nebula Award

Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Weller Book Works
Book buzzwords
Dan Simmons
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
Dragon Age
Atari Pong
Tetris
Super Off Road
Cruis’n World
Ms. Pac-Man

X-Men
Super Mario Land
Diablo
Anti Chamber
Sword of Fargoal

Obsessions
All: Neko Atsume

Anna: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
CTHD: Sword of Destiny

Toca Games

Kristina: Zen Koi

“Buy all the ammo, shoot all the bears”

 Alene: Set, Monkey Wrench

Episode 27: Hamilton and Best of 2015 Show Notes

Download episode here.

After three months away, we are back to discuss Hamilton (one of us is an expert and one is not) and discuss some of our highlights for 2015. And make an important announcement. Thanks to all our fans for your patience and support.

Links
Hamilton: An American Musical
Lin-Manuel Miranda
LMM and This American Life
LMM on Jeopardy!
“Hamilton” is the Very Model of a Modern Fast-Paced Musical
Disney’s Moana
The Wiz Live!
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Carol
Magic Mike XXL
Inside Out
Carly Rae Jepsen
Walk the Moon
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
Supergirl
The Flash
The Nine Lives of Christmas
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Crosstalk by Connie Willis
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold
Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley
The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
Mr. Fahrenheit by T. Michael Martin

Obsessions
Carolyn: Justin Bieber: “What Do You Mean?”

Anna: Adele: “Hello”

The Princess and the Prix by Nell Stark
A Lego Brickumentary

Episode 27: Hamilton and Best of 2015

After three months away, we are back to discuss Hamilton (one of us is an expert and one is not) and discuss some of our highlights for 2015. And make an important announcement. Thanks to all our fans for your patience and support.

Show notes here.

Episode 10 Show Notes: Best of the Year and What We’re Looking Forward To

Download link.

Introducing our best of 2014 lists, which are both arbitrary and silly (as you might have suspected)! New Year’s resolutions? We should go to more concerts. We should keep better track of things.

Carolyn’s List
Guardians of the Galaxy
Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
“Chocolate” by 1975
How to Get Away with Murder
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
The Lego Movie
True Detective
Walk the Moon‘s album Talking is Hard

Anna’s List
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Big Hero 6
Randoms from Willy Wonka Candy
Lumberjanes
1989 by Taylor Swift
Spotify
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Looking Ahead to 2015
Prudence by Gail Carriger (Book One of the Custard Protocol)
Star Wars Episode VII Teaser Trailer
Inside Out
The Very Thought of You by Connie Willis
IMDB Watchlist feature

Obsessions

Carolyn
The Flash
Arrow

Anna
Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg
Elfquest
Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson et. al

Episode 8 Show Notes: Revisiting and Sequels

In this episode, we dive deeper into the topic of re-reading, re-watching, and otherwise revisiting pop culture, which led naturally into the question of sequels–thanks, @younglibrarian!–only a few of which are more popular than the original properties!

Come and read Stephen King’s It with us!

Links:

It by Stephen King
“A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving” — Gilmore Girls S3 episode 9
Gail Carriger (on Twitter @gailcarriger)
Miracle and Other Christmas Stories and “All Seated on the Ground” by Connie Willis
Superfudge books by Judy Blume
The Princess Bride
Spaceballs
The Godfather
Real Genius
The Care Bears Movie
Grease 2
Avengers & sequel
Iron Man & sequels
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Star Wars Episode 1 (technically a prequel)
Speed 2
Highlander II: The Quickening
Blues Brothers 2000
Batman & Robin
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Lost Boys: The Thirst
Basic Instinct 2
Teen Wolf Too
American Psycho II: All-American Girl
The Jewel of the Nile
Romancing the Stone
Toy Story 2
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Batman Returns
The Silence of the Lambs
The Book of Sequels by Henry Beard, Christopher Cerf, and Sarah Durkee
Manhunter
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Angel
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Benson
Soap
Hastily googled list of TV spinoffs better than originals
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Clue

Obsessions
Anna:
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Same Sex Symbol comedy album by Cameron Esposito

Carolyn:
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

Fun Sized Episode: Desert Island I Show Notes

We’re popping in this week to talk about our top 3 “desert island” book picks. Links (and spoilers!) below:

Episode 2 Show Notes: Pop Culture Discovery and the Joy of Quitting

In our second episode, we tackle questions of pop culture acquisition and its logical counterpart: disillusion and disenchantment that leads to bitter the end of a pop culture relationship. Or something like that.

Our motto: “If you like it, you like it!”

Links (episode spoilers ahoy!)

• Nashville Public Library’s pop culture podcast: Popmatic
• Anna’s Reading Roulette project
• Anna’s Goodreads to-read list
• Carolyn’s Goodreads to-read list
• Edelweiss and Netgalley, key places to go for digital review copies
• Lesbrary
• Anna’s Tumblr: Patron Debris
• Carolyn’s Tumblr: Wait, What?
• The Current radio station
• Chloe by Emblem3
• Nancy Pearl’s rules for quitting books
• Head Over Heels by Jill Shalvis
• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
• Bellwether: Gina’s 5 objectives
  1. Optimize potential.
  2. Facilitate empowerment.
  3. Implement visioning.
  4. Strategize priorities.
  5. Augment core structures.
• Once Upon a Time
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon || Audiobook version || Adaptation on STARZ
• Guardians of the Galaxy spotify list
• The Best of Connie Willis

Email us with questions, comments, or topic suggestions!

 

Episode 1 Show Notes: Who We Are and What Screams Summer To You

Download link here.

Links

Bellwether by Connie Willis (read it NOW if you haven’t already)

Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast

A League of Their Own

Lori Petty (go watch Tank Girl)

Tom Petty

The Silence of the Lambs

California by Edan Lepucki

Lumberjanes!

 

Email us with questions, comments, or topic suggestions!