This week, Andi can’t make it, so Lise talks to one of her friends about the British sci-fi television show Dr. Who. Nyssa (AKA Feverwood), a Dr. Who superfan, regales Lise with all the reasons why Dr. Who, in general, is a fantastic show, and why the thirteenth Doctor, in particular is so wonderful.
Lise and Andi had too much come up and weren’t able to record this week. They’ll be back next time, but for now, enjoy this rerun episode of Paper Girls, an awesome graphic novel series we loved, and a hint about the topic for the next episode.
Andi and Lise really enjoyed this movie starring Michelle Yeoh that explores various themes around the idea of connection and finding meaning in our lives against the backdrop of the multiverse, absurdist comedy, action adventure, and moments of poignancy. Here, Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, who lives above the laundromat she and her husband own. They’re being audited by the IRS; her husband is trying to serve her with divorce papers but she doesn’t realize it because so much is going on; her father is living with them and she doesn’t have great history with him; and she’s practically estranged from her daughter. And then suddenly, she’s brought into the multiverse as the one person who might be able to save it from a potential threat.
So many layers! This is one they’ll be thinking about for a while. A few minor spoilers, but they don’t detract from the impact of this movie.
Shout-outs: Lise is jazzed about Adrian Tschaikovsky’s Final Architects sci fi series. She read the first book, Shards of Earth, and the world-building is amazing. She ran right out and bought the second because she had to know what happened next. Andi is reading the second in the Dread Nation series by Justina Ireland, Deathless Divide. Alt-history zombies. What’s not to love? She also started watching the TV adaptation of the comics Paper Girls on Amazon Prime and is really enjoying it. Tense and creepy!
Andi and Lise discuss Season 1 (1997) of the iconic TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.Both are Buffy fans, so re-visiting this fave was fun but also revealing, as they look back on the show through different eyes and grapple with some of the harmful tropes and recent allegations about the show’s creator. Regardless, they’ll be re-watching more seasons going forward, so stay tuned for those! And keep on slaying!
Andi and Lise would both like to shout-out the end of last week, which was a crappy week for both and for other people in their lives, so #byefelicia to last week and they’re looking forward to better weeks!
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Andi and Lise talk about the writing life, and a bit about what’s involved if you decide to “go professional” with your writing. How does that change your creativity? What does it mean for you if you decide to go professional and get published? What do writers have to think about should they decide to go the publishing route? Andi and Lise address some of the misunderstandings about a writing life and career, and yes, some of the realities that they’ve dealt with in their own writing arcs.
Shout-outs: Lise has discovered the video game Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which is based in ancient Greece and is loving it. Andi is finishing up the first season of Star Trek: Discovery and wow! Twists and turns! Available on CBS and the apps that stream CBS.
Andi and Lise really, really enjoyed author Sarah Hollowell’s Locus-nominated YA fantasy, A Dark and Starless Forest (2021), which deals with a group of young women and girls, each with specific magical gifts, who are cloistered in a house near a mysterious forest, overseen by a man whose true motivations are suspect. Told from the POV of one of the young women, this is a wonderfully crafted novel that will definitely leave you thinking long after you’ve finished it the first time (and second…and third…). Highly recommend!
Shout-outs: Lise has been spending a lot of time with binoculars spying on her frog ponds from her back windows, watching tadpoles turn into polliwogs turn into froglets and finally, FROGS! Andi appreciates spying on nature, as she was doing the same with this year’s group of Canada goose goslings inhabiting a nearby river bank. Both Andi and Lise highly recommend checking out nature as you can.
Andi and Lise dive into the 1997 dystopic sci fi film The Fifth Element, with Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, and Chris Tucker to determine what still works (or not) 25 years after its release. They find that it holds up surprisingly well in a number of ways, but needed work in others. Still, after 25 years, it’s a visually appealing film that does interesting things with cinematography, soundtrack, and gender expression.
2017 Entertainment Weekly article about the film’s making HERE
Shout-outs: Lise shouts out veterinarians; she’s been dealing with a sick kitty and hopefully all will be well soon. In honor of this shout-out, Andi shout-outs and recommends the show Critter Fixers: Country Vets, available on NatGeo.
Andi and Lise talk about Pride: its origins, media representation, commercialization, and the anti-LGBTQIA stuff we are all still facing. Celebrate, commemorate, but stay safe and take care of yourselves and each other.
Shout-outs: Lise has been watching season 4 of Stranger Things on Netflix, but has mixed feelings about Netflix because the service has been stepping in it by platforming anti-trans voices and other problematic things. Andi has been watching British procedurals on Acorn and BritBox and is continually reminded how screwed up the US is because gun violence just isn’t an issue in almost all of them.
Solidarity, love, and light to those affected by gun violence.
Andi and Lise chatted with award-winning author Cathy Pegau about her writing and publishing trajectory and about writing F/F spec fic, including her latest work, The Demon Equilibrium, a historical paranormal saga in which two women have to save the world from a demonic horde.
Shout-outs: Lise is working on figuring out how to build caterpillar cages to help protect caterpillars in her backyard ecosystem. Cathy is stoked that her son is graduating from college very soon and Andi is once again planting things.
Lise had to spend a week driving halfway across the country and back, so she and Andi decided to flash all the way back to the beginning of Lez Geek Out! Enjoy the inaugural episode featuring the movie D.E.B.S. and they’ll be back next time.
Lez Geek Out!cast 