Episode 77: Movie Advisory 2017B, Best of 2017, and 2018 Preview

We give our takes on the theatrical releases we watched in the back half of 2017, then talk about our bests of the past year before plunging into what we’re looking forward to in the new year! There are some spoilers, but we rarely make much sense. Movie Advisory 2017A was episode 66!

Links

Movie Advisory 2017B

Battle of the Sexes
The Dark Tower

The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
It
The Mountain Between Us
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Murder on the Orient Express

Pitch Perfect 3
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Coming Soon
Black Panther
Deadpool 2
Ready Player One
Ocean’s 8
Proud Mary
A Wrinkle in Time

Pacific Rim: Uprising
Fifty Shades Freed
Crazy Rich Asians
Ant-Man and the Wasp
The House With a Clock in its Walls
Halloween
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Best of 2017
Movies: Get Out, Wonder Woman, The Last Jedi, Hidden Figures, Fate of the Furious, The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Books: #libfaves17, Gone to Dust by Matt Goldman, Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough, No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal, Misfit City by Kiwi Smith, Kurt Lustgarten, and Naomi Franquiz, Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin

Television: Riverdale, One Day at a Time, Supergirl, Hallmark/Lifetime movies
Music: Rainbow by Kesha
Other: the power of twitter (Metro-North train rescue), phone battery replacement, eclipse, Women of NASA Lego set

Looking forward to in 2018
Midterm elections
She-Ra on Netflix
Lumberjanes Coloring Book
Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
New Becky Chambers book
Painting by Numbers (Shades of Grey 2) by Jasper Fforde
Black Lightning on the CW
Grown-ish on Freeform
The X-Files on Fox

Musical Obsessions
Anna: “Seasons of Love” from Rent
Alene: “Santa Fe” from Rent

Obsessions
Anna: 221B Baker Street board game, Fandom Hearts series by Cathy Yardley, Bingo Love by Tee Franklin and Jenn St. Onge
Alene: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Episode 66: Movie Advisory 2017A

Our wrap-up of all the first-run movies we saw in the first half of 2017, and what we’re looking forward to for the rest of the year. With special guest Giant Bug.

Links

Previous Movie Advisory episodes: 35, 53

Baywatch
Pamela Anderson
David Hasselhoff

Beauty and the Beast

Fifty Shades Darker

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
The Hollywood Reporter: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’: How Sean Gunn Became Marvel’s Secret Weapon
[Firefly]
[What Dreams May Come]

Get Out
[The Stepford Wives]

Hidden Figures

The Lego Batman Movie

Office Christmas Party

Power Rangers

Sing

Wonder Woman
Logan (Episode 59)
Fate of the Furious (Episode 65)
[Spider-Man: Homecoming]

Coming Soon:
The Dark Tower
The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
It
Blade Runner 2049
Murder on the Orient Express
Justice League
Pitch Perfect 3
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Musical Obsessions
Anna: “Still Got Time” by Zayn
Alene: “More Than a Feeling” by Boston
[Believe Me by Eddie Izzard]

Obsessions
Anna: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
[The Starbound Trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner]
Alene: The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

Episode 26: IT and Back To School Show Notes

Download episode here.

We are finally ready to discuss Stephen King’s IT! Or are we? Find out in our latest episode, which features an interview with a very special guest. Also: everyone seems to be going back to school, so we discuss our favorite teachers and favorite (and least favorite) schools. Feel free to share yours in the comments or on Twitter and Facebook.

Crowdsourced Pop Culture Map

Links
Anna on The Worst Bestsellers discussing Grey by E.L. James
New Production of It Will be “Very Scary” and a two-parter???

Tim Curry

List of fictional schools (Wikipedia)

Sunnydale High School (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

West Beverly High School (90210)

Performing Arts High School (Fame; gif probably from movie and Carolyn was obsessed with the show but let’s just ignore that)

Lawndale High School (Daria)

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Harry Potter)

Hillman College (A Different World)

Walden College (Doonesbury)

Kaibara High School (Fruits Basket)

Rancho Carne High School (Bring it On)

Bayside High School (Saved by the Bell)

Degrassi

List of fictional schoolteachers (Wikipedia)

Ms. Frizzle (Magic School Bus)

Sir Myles of Olau (Song of the Lioness)

Miss Switch

Professor X (X-Men)

Ms. Norbury (Mean Girls)

Professor McGonagall (Harry Potter)

Mr. Miyagi (The Karate Kid)

Yoda (Star Wars)

Back to School

Musical Obsessions
Anna: “Follow Your Arrow” by Kacey Musgraves
Carolyn: “Cheerleader” by Omi

Non-Musical Obsessions
Anna: SPQR by Mary Beard
Again With This–90210 Rewatch Podcast with Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting

Carolyn: Drunk History || Article (ALERT: Carolyn was wrong [SHOCKER]. Cameron Esposito is NOT on the first episode of the new season. Carry on.)

Episode 24: Magic Mike and Celebrity Crushes Show Notes

Download episode here.

In this episode, Anna and Carolyn delve deep into the world of Magic Mike (both Magic Mike XXL and Magic Mike Original Flavor) and revisit the topic of celebrity crushes in exhaustive detail.

Links – they’re GIFTASTIC!

It

Knights Who Say Ni

Twitch // So You Think You Can Dance

Dana Scully // Gillian Anderson

Ewan McGregor // Trainspotting

Kim Legaspi // Elizabeth Mitchell

Captain Janeway // Kate Mulgrew

Regina // Lana Parilla

Benedict Cumberbatch

Abby Wambach

Charlie Hunnam // “That Motorcycle Show”

Don Draper // Jon Hamm

Ruby Rose

Musical Obsessions

Horrible Song that Carolyn hates

Heaven by Bryan Adams

Pony by Ginuwine

Obsessions
Anna: Blacklight mini golf
Ana of California by Andi Teran

Carolyn: VACATION

Episode 9 Show Notes: Reluctant Consumption and Travel Habits

Download link.

This episode we catch up on where we are with It so far, Carolyn’s experience watching a third season episode of the Gilmore Girls with zero prior knowledge. Then we tackle @anneheathen‘s question about how you handle recommendations that you don’t really want to follow through on and tackle the question of entertainment while traveling. It turns out we are both contrary and probably won’t believe the hype. We also detour into what we love/hate that everyone else hates/loves.

Links

The Bechdel Test
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Lost in Translation
The Passion of the Christ
Seinfeld
Harry Potter
The Eagles
Bruce Springsteen
Eric Clapton
Hatesong from the A.V. Club
Serial podcast
Glamour magazine
Marie Claire magazine
Entertainment Weekly magazine
People magazine
The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks (Anna said The Blinding Knife but she meant The Broken Eye)
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Jeffrey

Obsessions

Anna:
It by Stephen King (surprise!)
Lumberjanes #8
Nimona

Carolyn:
The holidays

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

Episode 6 Show Notes: [Scary Halloween Noises]

For our sixth episode, we turned to a convenient national obsession: HALLOWEEN! Warning: meandering conversation ahead.

Links

A list of all the Halloween-related episodes of American TV
Butterick Halloween costume patterns for 2014!
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Gaslight
The Mothman Prophecies
Halloween H20
The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror
Alien
The Terminator
The Shining by Stephen King
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
It by Stephen King
Notebook of Doom series by Troy Cummings
Bunnicula by James Howe
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Paranormal Activity
Final Destination
“It’s decorative gourd season, mother—-ers!”

Obsessions

Anna:
The Game and the Governess by Kate Noble
“Elsie” by Nickel Creek

Carolyn:
“Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon