Episode 109: Cosplay: Fan-fic in 3D

Cosplay: Fanfic in 3-D 

Andi and Lise are doing something a little different in this show! Here, Andi interviews Lise about her involvement in cosplay – specifically propmaking and even more specifically, cool weaponry and armaments. Here we talk about how she got into it, some of the materials she uses, and what cosplay is all about for her and others who are involved. Cosplay rocks! Lise also notes that you can find all kinds of resources for cosplay on YouTube, like Punished Props Academy, who does tutorials and TNT Cosplay Supply, which offers tutorials on using EVA foam, which Lise discussed. There are tons of other cosplay YouTube channels; start browsing! 

Some links of interest: 

Geeks: History of Cosplay 

The abridged yet complete history of cosplay 

The Nerdd: The history of cosplay 

Shout-outs: Lise started watching The Owl House, an animated fantasy TV series available on Disney. It follows the adventures of Luz, a teenaged Dominican American girl who ends up going through a portal to another world where she befriends a witch and becomes her apprentice at the Owl House. Andi shouts out Sam the Sword, a gender fluid trans guy who is also a master sword fighter and artist who also works on film crews. Find Sam on Instagram and Twitter. 

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Episode 108: Tremors: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise introduce a new feature for LGO; “Does It Hold Up?” in which they look at older media and determine if it could, basically, still hold up today. Here, in the inaugural episode of the feature, they are pleasantly surprised that the 1990 creature feature flick Tremors does hold up, and also had some interesting and cool aspects for the time in which it was made. In this flick, residents of a small, isolated Nevada town are confronted by mysterious underground creatures that are picking them off one by one. Good popcorn movie! 

Two-minute clip that will tell you what you need to know without watching the trailer, which actually had some spoilers. 

Shout-outs: Lise highly recommends the board game Ticket to Ride, in which players collect and play matching cards that allow them to claim railway routes that connect cities throughout North America. Fun strategy game! Andi is reading books by Carl Hiaasen, a Florida-based journalist who writes absolutely hilarious novels with pointed commentary, usually based to some extent in Florida. Nobody escapes his wit. Hiaasen is a master at capturing every day cray and how things can go totally off the rails. 

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Episode 107: Snapdragon by Kat Leyh

Andi and Lise simply LOVE the graphic novel Snapdragon by Kat Leyh (published 2020). The main character is Snapdragon (she goes by Snap), a young girl who ends up befriending the town’s alleged witch. It’s a delightful, layered story about outsiders, found family, and finding magic within yourself. POC rep, queer rep (including great butch lesbian rep FINALLY), feminist rep and storylines that blend seamlessly. Lise and Andi read it several times because the story really resonated with them. Kat Leyh is also one of the creative forces (writer and cover artist) behind the series Lumberjanes, which Andi and Lise discussed way back when in episode 6. 

Snapdragon description via Macmillan 

April, 2021 interview with Kat Leyh  

Find Kat on Twitter: @kaymlay 

Shout-outs: Lise is super-stoked about writing her very first blurb for author Cathy Pegau’s forthcoming release (November!), The Demon Equilibrium, which features kick-ass women and great world-building. The two MCs are demon-hunters and romantic partners as well, but they’ve been separated and must find each other. Andi has started reading the first offering in the latest Star Wars ’verse project, The High Republic. One of the first books is Charles Sproul’s Light of the Jedi. Fun space opera with lots of tension and it’s nice to see the diversity of authors lined up for more of this. High Republic is set 200 years before the Phantom Menace. 

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Episode 106: Viva Las Vegas! Army of the Dead!

Andi and Lise chat about the movie Army of the Dead (2020), a zombie heist gore-fest directed by Zach Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 2004). That’s right, heist. A zombie outbreak has occurred in Las Vegas after a military convoy crashes and patient zero escapes into the city and the government has to build a wall all around it. A rich casino owner wants a team to sneak into the city to crack a vault in his casino and snag two hundred million dollars. However, all may not be as it seems, either with the casino owner, the heist plan, and the zombies themselves. Andi and Lise highly recommend that you not dig too deep into this; you’ll only end up asking WTF more than once. Take it as pure adrenaline-fueled entertainment and don’t scratch the surface. Also, this movie probably isn’t appropriate for young folx (kids, ’tweens, some teens) because it is, as mentioned, a gore-fest. 

More info and trailer can be found at IMDb; stream it on Netflix. 

Shout-outs: Lise highly recommends the series “The Great Pottery Throw Down,” available on HBO Max. It’s a British reality show along the lines of the “Great British Bake-off” in which the competition is to decide Britain’s best home potter. Four seasons now streaming. Andi raves about the graphic novel Snapdragon (2020) by Kat Leyh, about a girl who doesn’t fit in and ends up befriending the town “witch” and in doing so, finds out more about her own capabilities. Queer rep, amazing art, great story, wonderful characters. 

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Episode 105: The Hazards of Love by Stan Stanley

Andi and Lise rave the hell out of this amazing first volume of Stan Stanley’s The Hazards of Love, which follows a nonbinary teen, Amparo Uribe, who ends up agreeing to a bargain with a shitty cat that allows the latter to take over the teen’s life and body and sends the now exiled teen’s spirit to Bright World, where they are a seriously marginalized human trying to survive in systems of debt and ever-changing rules that subject them to constant threats. But formerly Amparo (they lost their name when they agreed to the bargain) is working to find a way out. Wonderfully layered, meta-meanings, queer rep, gorgeous artwork and writing, dark humor, and fantastical beasts and Bright World denizens – Stanley explores what it means to be who we are, and what comes to define us. 

The first volume collects the first 12 issues of the comic and we can barely stand waiting for the next issues… 

Find more info about the volume at Indiebound. 

And at Simon & Schuster 

Stan Stanley’s website – we’ve heard she’s a devilishly handsome woman of science… 

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Episode 104: Pride and Representation

Pride and Representation 

This week, in recognition of Pride month, Andi and Lise talk about LGBTQ representation in media, including tokenism and how it intersects with queerbaiting and even bury your gays. When is tokenism “good”? When is it “bad”? Join them as they try to unravel some of this. 

Shout outs: Lise is stoked about an 8-episode mini-campaign for the D&D show Critical Role, which just wrapped up its second campaign. It’s another Exandria adventure! It features part of the regular cast, so you’ll still be getting great voice acting. Give it a whirl! Meanwhile, Andi is still obsessing over Acorn TV and she’s been watching a lot of the NZ mystery series Brokenwood, which features a really quirky lead detective (among a lot of other quirky characters) who loves old country music and drives a funky old car. Really cool to watch the characters gel, and there are some great mysteries. 

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Episode 103: The CW’s Nancy Drew

Andi finally managed to convince Lise to give Season 1 of the CW’s Nancy Drew a watch and Lise did and she enjoyed it! So they talk about that season here. This is a re-imagining of Nancy Drew, which brings some diversity to the cast, some queer rep, and some excellent paranormal elements layered in with the mystery that consumes Nancy and her crew during this season. This version of Nancy is complicated and flawed, like her fellow characters, and it makes her, we think more relatable. Both Lise and Andi were impressed by the writing, because this show kept them guessing, and that’s hard to do. Hooks and twists throughout! 

You can find Season 1 on Amazon Prime, HBOMax, iTunes, and Google Play 

Shout-outs: Lise highly recommends the graphic novel The Hazards of Love, by Stan Stanley, in which a young queer teen Amparo makes a deal with a talking cat – they give over their body to the cat to become a better person to date another student they don’t feel quite worthy of, but the fine print means Amparo’s spirit ends up in Bright World, a land of terrifying creatures and all around badness. Amparo has to escape without becoming like the awful all around them. 

Andi recommends a particular episode of the true crime podcast The Fall Line, which looks into cold cases that have been underreported. The May 26 episode deals with a new database under way launched by the Trans Doe Task Force (which researches cold cases in which the victim may have been trans or gender variant). The database is LAMMP: LGBTQ+ Accountability for Missing and Murdered Persons – to track cases of the missing, murdered, and unidentified LGBTQ+ people. 

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Episode 102: Birds of Prey: All About Harley F*ckin’ Quinn!

Andi and Lise discuss and express much love for the 2020 DC movie with the longest subtitle in either the DC or Marvel universe: Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. The movie, narrated in parts by Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), is a story about how she finds herself after the end of a relationship with the Joker (arguably a poster child for toxic masculinity) while also dealing with the fallout from the relationship. She manages to forge an alliance of sorts with Black Canary, Detective Renée Montoya, and Huntress as they battle another poster child of toxic masculinity, Roman Sionis. The result is a gorgeously frenetic journey through and with the mind of Harley Quinn, filled with great fight scenes, excellent character development, and snappy, snarky dialogue. Lise and Andi agree: this film is liberating, and makes us vicariously love kicking ass. 

Fantabulous Trailer 

IMDB info 

Shout-outs: Lise highly recommends the animated miniseries Over the Garden Wall (2014), in which 2 brothers are lost in a mysterious land trying to find their way home. Vintage aesthetic and elements of fantasy, a bit of creepy horror, and other surprises. Andi implores listeners to read Sarah Rose’s 2019 D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II. Beautifully written nonfiction account of some of the women who were parachuted/boated into occupied France to support and develop Resistance networks. 

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Episode 101: Digital Media that Keeps Us Coming Back

This week, Andi and Lise talk about their current fave podcasts and other digital media that keeps them engaged and gets them through these times. 

Lise: 

YouTube channel Punished Props Academy, which is a how-to on awesome cosplay with Bill and Brittany Doran. 

Podcast Tenfold More Wicked, on Exactly Right Network. Historic true crime hosted by author and journalist Kate Winkler Dawson. 

Dungeons and Dragons podcast Critical Role, which features voice actors and epic campaigns. Available as streaming video, on YouTube, and as a podcast. And so much more. 

Join the Party, a collaborative storytelling and role-playing podcast, also D&D-related. 

Andi: 

Still a faithful listener of My Favorite Murder on the Exactly Right Network a true crime comedy podcast that has become an amazing community. (Lez Geek Out! covered MFM in show #45) 

In The Thick, a podcast on the Futuro Media Network about “politics, race and culture from a POC perspective.” Hosted by Andi’s all-time fave journalist Maria Hinojosa and fellow journalist Julio Ricardo Varela. 

Making Gay History, a podcast that features interviews and oral histories with people who have been involved with LGBTQ history/LGBTQ civil rights history. 

TransLash podcast, Futuro Media Network. Hosted by journalist Imara Jones, the podcast deals with news, politics, culture, and stories about and by trans and nonbinary folx. 

Shout-outs: Lise has been playing a board game called Eldritch Horror based on the fiction of Lovecraft and inspired by board game Arkham Horror. Complicated but instructions are easy to parse and it’s hella fun. Andi has been watching Acorn TV and really enjoys My Life Is Murder, an Australian crime drama starring LUCY LAWLESS as a retired cop who ends up consulting on investigations. Did she mention LUCY LAWLESS. Great characters, great dialogue, good stories. 

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Rerun Episode 62: Booktalk

This week, Lise was busting her butt to get one of her cosplays gussied up so it could be entered into a competition. Andi and Lise will be back with their regularly scheduled shenanigans next time!

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