Sidetracks - May 31, 2018

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. For more links and commentary you can follow us on Twitter, Tumblr. You can also support us on Patreon.

Jodie

1. Clare wrote The fall of fandom etiquette and the rise of the ship war which looks at both how fans expectations about shipping have changed, and details how a Harry Potter fandom ship war 'birthed zero-sum shipping'. Fascinating.

2. KJ wrote me a post about her recommended watch order for the MCU in response to me saying I might be thinking about doing a superhero project. This is great and helpful :D

3. Sarah Mccarry has a new post up about some books she's been reading, children, writing, and friends. As ever, I am blown away by her style and the emotion of her writing.

4. Kate Kane (Batwoman) is coming to the DC TV universe and OMG does this mean I'll finally have to watch Arrow? PS. Recently I have been thinking about doing a huge, long superhero TV and film watch project where I catch up on the many, many gaps in my superhero viewership. Please talk me out of this - I do not have time.

5. Speaking of DC TV, a young Alfred TV series is coming soon. I kind of want this (sorry to be this way).

6. Peaky Blinders won the BAFTA for Best Drama (and beat out The Crown which pleases me, a Midlander, immensely).

7. Interesting piece by AN Devers who has set up Second Shelf - a book dealership company designed to help preserve the work of women writers.

8. Jennifer Aniston and Tig Notaro will play a married couple in Netflix comedy "First Ladies" (where Jennifer Aniston will play the first US female president).

9. Really enjoyed this thread from the Female Friendships in SFF panel at WisCon (sounds so much better than a similar panel I attended at another con).

KJ

10. Not only did I attend the Female Friendships panel that Jodie mentioned above, I was one of the panelists. :) It was a super-fun conversation, and I'm already thinking about ways to extend the topic for next year. I recommend the entire Twitter tag for commentary and recs.

11. Another WisCon related link: Tananarive Due, one of this year's Guests of Honor, gave a wonderful speech about, among other things, surviving creatively and personally in our age of dumpster fires. The text of that speech isn't available online yet, but (by her own admission) it borrows heavily from a blog post that she posted on Inauguration Day, and I recommend that too.

12. At Tor.com, Brandon O'Brien talks about why he found the mishandling of Gamora to be the most egregious problem with Avengers: Infinity War. Spoilers, naturally, and in the next two links as well.

13. This review of Thor: Ragnarok is an excellent breakdown of how the movie is an indictment of colonialism and white supremecy. It is also funny as heck. (By which I mean the review, not the movie, although the movie is also funny as heck.)

14. One more on Infinity War: "Thanos Didn't Have a Point and Someone Should Tell the Writers." On villain motivations and the ways in which Thanos's were lacking.

15. Last week, the internet was consumed by a New York Times interview with some of the cast of Arrested Development, in which the male cast members came off as really awful and dismissive toward Jessica Walter, who plays Lucille Bluth on the show. Linda Holmes from NPR has good thoughts on why this particular interview provoked such a strong reaction.

Susan

16. The Sims 4 is getting a Seasons expansion! I'm not sure if I'm going to buy it (I have multiple households where everyone's stuff is just on the lawn, because sims who get moodlets from being outside are great for me and my boredom with building and decorating houses), but I know that renay must know that she can fill her houses with bees!

17. CO-OP POKÉMON GAME, CO-OP POKÉMON GAME! I have wanted a properly co-op Pokémon game for years, and it looks like they might have finally made it!

18. Speaking of Pokémon games, I'm mostly ambivalent about Pokémon Quest, but it let's you build a base and bribe Pokémon with food to be your friend, and that's ALSO what I want, so...

19. Sarah Gailey has a new novella coming out about queer librarian spies and I am here for it.

Comments

[bookgazing]

Oh no, I feel like such a heel for not remembering you were actually on the panel I quoted KJ.

[owlmoose]

No worries! (Especially since the person who livetweeted it never used my name or Twitter handle.) For me it felt mostly like a "great minds think alike" moment. After all, a panel about female friendships is very "on brand" for ladybusiness. :)