Happy September, I hope it’s cooling down where you are! It’s been cooler in the mornings here in Baltimore which has been a welcome relief.
Speaking of COOL…
One month from today, on Friday, October 11th at 7 pm, the Witch, Please Productions team will be in Chicago to celebrate Hannah’s forthcoming book, Clever Girl! We really want to see you there!!!! SAVE THE DATE (and make your plan!) to join us for the book party at Women & Children First— a very cool and gay and historic indie bookstore in Andersonville.
Marcelle will be in conversation with Hannah about her book, followed by a Q&A with the audience and a chance to MINGLE!!! See you soon?
xoxo,
Gaby, Hannah, Marcelle, Coach, and Zoe
p.s. In 2019, Coach filmed a sketch called The Book Reading at Women & Children First Bookstore. WOAH!
Have you been digging our Material Concerns episodes? We sure have been, and not just because we get to talk about how hot we are. In this episode, Hannah and Marcelle answer your hard hitting questions like "why is your team so hot!!!!?" Part two of this conversation is available at all our tiers on Patreon! For just $5 USD/month you'll get to hear Marcelle and Hannah discuss more about Reservation Dogs and what's going on in their lives! Pretty cool!!
Next up, Hannah leads an episode aboutJurassic Park and Spectacle. A likely thing for them to do!! She and Marcelle discuss the ultimate CGI summer blockbuster, the history of American spectacle, and the monstrosity of the movie's out-of-control lady dinosaurs! If you’re left wanting even MORE, there’s great news: Hannah wrote a whole book about it!! Clever Girl is out on October 1st and you can preorder it now! Clever Girl "is a smart and incisive exploration of everyone’s favorite dinosaur movie and the female dinosaurs who embody what it means to be angry, monstrous, and free." Hell yeah!
NEW Making Worlds Ep Comes Out This Week!
Lest we let you forget— We publish a monthly video podcast hosted by Hannah that is all about feminist world-making. This month’s episode is about Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave. Because you subscribe to the Substack, we’re giving you a little taste of our episode with Dina Del Bucchia. In this clip, Hannah and Dina are talking about the sketch Baby Cries.
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We're in pre-production for Season Two and we want to hear from you! Our first season was dedicated to a range of topics from gender euphoria, to Pride, to myths around detransition. This second season's topics will be influenced by listeners.
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Save the Date: Friday, October 11th, 7 pm CST
Did you skim the intro??? We get it. So we’re saying it once more: The Witch, Please Productions team is going to Chicago to celebrate Hannah’s book launch!!!! We’re ALL (ALL!!!!!) going to be at Women & Children First on Friday, October 11th! Do you want to come?? You SHOULD want to come! More info can be found here, with more deets to follow. We really hope we’ll see you there!
foreshadowing of all of us being together by two of us being together
Sometimes a playlist is just songs about Chicago because you’re gonna get to see your buds in Chicago in O N E M O N T H. Listen and it’ll be like you’re there with us! Playlist on Spotify here or Apple Music here.
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Two years ago my friend Jessica Delisle (whose voice you might know from the theme songs of both Material Girls and Making Worlds) sent me the unpublished final version of her and her partner Jay Arner's new album. Planet Perfect, which they've since released under their band name Energy Slime, became my mid-pandemic soundtrack: energizing synth pop with a queer, anticapitalist, and sometimes surrealist vibe. Take for example this powerful couplet from "Clowning Around": "Life’s a bitch unless you’re rich / Let’s drink some blood under the bridge." Is there a better mantra for 2024? I SUBMIT THAT THERE IS NOT! Anyway, it took two years but Planet Perfect is now out in the world, and you can listen to it wherever you find music, but I personally recommend buying it on Bandcamp because that means the band will literally ever get the money for it. Also I love the album art so much that I'm considering getting into record collecting just so I can buy the vinyl.You get a bonus recommendation this month because Hannah's book Clever Girl is coming out and you know we all want you to read it! Order it here! Lately I have been inhaling Alexis Hall's romance catalogue. Alexis Hall (a pseudonym!) writes tremendously clever, seamlessly progressive romances. I'm cheating a bit here because I'm going to tell you about three of their novels. The first one I picked up was called Boyfriend Material and it had me LITERALLY L-O-L-ing. It's a contemporary M4M fake-romance-turns-real plot and it was a DELIGHT. TW for some discussion of disordered eating. 4/5 because it's not smutty. Oh, the audiobook was awesome! The second one I picked up was called A Lady for a Duke and it's an historical W4M romance with a trans heroine. Hall writes this Regency romance in a way that both takes PTSD seriously and reminds us that trans people have always existed, have always had loving families, and have always been desirable as themselves. TW for discussion of addiction. 4.5/5 because I think the book could have skipped right to the epilogue after the lovers hook up, which they do SMUTTILY. (lol the absolute irony of me criticizing someone else for telling a story for too long!) And lastly I'll tell you about Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake. This is a contemporary Pride & Prejudice style romance that takes place behind the scenes of a Great-British-Bake-Off-style reality tv show. The main character, Rosaline, is a hot bisexual mom who cavorts with the wrong guy until she realizes she misjudged the right one. It's an incredibly funny and charming W4M romance that treats bisexuality seriously. It would be perfect with more smut so it also gets a 4/5. TW for attempted sexual coercion that Rosaline is able to escape.I watched the entire first season of Euphoria on Friday after doing and teaching improv for an audience of 250 high school girls. It was a mistake! That show is as upsetting as expected and I’m worried for the children. That said, I was so impressed by Jacob Elordi and Hunter Schafer’s performances I couldn’t stop watching. I am the daughter of a woman who will not let any actor get away with an imperfect accent, so just know that I was raised to be a critic with a tuned ear. AND THAT MAN is doing such a great American accent. It blew me away! Otherwise, I’m still processing the show’s take on generational trauma and misogyny, but I mostly came away from season one impressed and surprised by the show’s style and original, if inconsistent, tone. Let me know if you’ve watched it (I know I’m late to the party).Recently I started making these Chinese-style garlic greens beans by Nom Nom Paleo. And let me tell you, I’m in heaven. More often than not I am craving these tasty beans. I will go to a restaurant and just order a side of them. I would eat my weight in them, if I could. And now I CAN, because I can make them at home!! Find the recipe here.Content warning: body talk, but positive! I’m cheating again, sue me!! I have the $10 Treat recommendation this month and I’m recommending a subscription to The Underbelly. You technically have to pay $20 up front for this, but if you break it down, it comes down to roughly ~$5/month, so I’m within the parameters by the skin of my teeth. Anyway, The Underbelly is an online yoga studio that places particular emphasis on making yoga accessible for people of all body types. I was a Yoga With Adriene truther for YEARS—for a long time, I practiced yoga daily and felt really great about it! But my body changed, as bodies do, and practices by chill thin straight ladies wasn’t going to work for me anymore. The Underbelly does NOT assume slimness is the default of the people practicing and it has made my practice so much more enjoyable. Plus, Jessamyn—the queer, fat, Black founder—has an incredibly pleasant energy. She recognizes that you’re sometimes bringing a lot of shit with you to the mat and you might not leave feeling like you’re fixed. I love everything about it!
Okay, bye! xoxo
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