DearEvette

Oh, I love my job. I have worked in Higher Ed for almost my entire professional life both in the corporate sector (for a major education software vendor) and in the education sector for different colleges and universities. My current job I've been in the longest and worked my way up to an assistant directorship, have a lot of autonomy and seniority, and have earned (based on what my boss tells me) the respect of a lot of my colleagues. Speaking of... my boss texted me today to tell me that one of my least favorite people ( a particularly snotty professor that I had a rather public falling out with about 10 years ago because I knew something better than he did and he didn't like it so he decided to show his ass) was put on administrative leave, access to his university email and other systems have been removed. I am dying to know the hell happened. The amount of fucked up you have to do for a tenured professor and dept. chair to get this level rebuke is major!

Yeah the shipping discourse between Carmy and Sydney on The Bear is interesting. I don't know if any of The Bear creatives have weighed in (they'd be smart NOT to) but the whole thing has a 'been there, done that quality with some people saying 'There is no chemistry' and 'Why can't people just be friends' and 'They are giving sibling energy' in response to people shipping the couple. Now, to be fair I am not shipping Syd and Carmy per se I can see an argument for them being this great friend-partnership only, but the shippers are not pulling stuff out of their asses. I don't know if it is the writing, the directing, the acting choices or just the actor chemistry, but Syd and Carmy have scenes that objectively read as UST. Which brings me to the race portion of all this because usually these kickbacks to 'can't people just be friends" and 'they are giving sibling" vibes tend to be loudest when one pair of the shipping couple is a black female. Which brings us to Iscove and yeah, he needs to just sit there and eat his food. He has no credibility here. Given how they fumbled the bag with their own couple, I would only trust them to tell me how NOT to have nice things.

This is one thing I have noticed and have loved about her books over the years. She does write boys very well. You can tell she's been around young boys a lot (...aaand that sounded way more creepy than I meant... LOL). But she absolutely gets the 'voice' and mannerisms right. I remembered thinking this when I did a re-read of Black Hills last year. So much of it is from Cooper's pov and we meet him when he is young going to stay with his grandparents in South Dakota for the summer and feeling like it is a punishment because he is a born and bred New Yorker. I found him delightful and he is reminiscent of a lot of her male leads if we meet them when they are younger. She has a fine hand with creating likeable affable heroes. My own recent reading has been rather eclectic - I recently finished The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold. I love, love, love the first two books in the Chalion series and have read them many times, this is the third one and I never liked it as much, but decided to re-read it. Still not as great as the first two but I think I like it better with some distance. Read Burn it Down by Mo Ryan, the book about in some ways how broken the Hollywood system is that excuses 'genius' and makes way for a lot of the toxic behind -the-scenes environments that are often whispered about on tv and movie sets and it really doesn't have to be that way. Some things were shocking, some validating. I do like that it wasn't just a gossipy tell all but her background in having access to people in the industry she offers examples of good practices and suggestions that it doesn't have to be that way. Magic Tides and Magic Claims by Ilona Andrews - these are two long novellas that are officially the first two books in the Kate Daniels: The Wilmington years series. The original Kate Daniels series ended. We knew there would be other series shoot-offs. But not one featuring Kate and Curran. But these have been a nice surprise. And what I love about them is how true to the characters the author is staying. Curran and Kate, bless their hearts, have relocated to Wilmington and are trying to live a normal quiet life. Bwah! The moral of this story is that you can leave a place and attempt to try to live a quiet life and leave some baggage behind, but you are always gonna be you. One thing I am loving about the second book is that the authors are doing what they (and the character of Kate) resisted even until the end in her original series. She refused to embrace her full power. But it seems like they are taking those gloves off in this series and I am enjoying it!

My son made Big Mac Tacos. He got the sauce right. Surprisingly tasty.

Ooh, that's nothing. it has been twenty years and I am still pressed over the fact that Denzel Washington's portrayal Malcolm X lost to Al Pacino's over the top scenery chew of Scent of a Woman. Yeah it was a long over due make up Oscar (which I hate because it is supposed to be about the performance, but I digress...). If he had to win his make up Oscar it is a shame it went to that performance which, imo, was just a bag of tics.

Aww Jessica Batten and her husband had their baby. A Boy named Dax. Congrats to them. https://www.instagram.com/p/CtmY0ldJuw9/

I would understand (somewhat) if she had remained firmly niche or midlist and never really made it out of mass market. But she really is a big name in romance and had moved to suspense hardcover. So she had crossed over somewhat. Bloggers and twitter are all over her death and her family has announced that she actually has some books that are complete and will be published posthumously. Still, no excuse for at least the New York papers not to have something considering she was a published by the big NY houses. Yup. Publishing's dirty little secret for years. Romance was a billion dollar a year mule carrying them on their backs.

I think you are thinking of Casey Affleck, Ben's younger brother.

I re-read The Bride earlier this year and it absolutely stands the test of time. So good. My favorite line "She started three wars in the first week." And in the ending with all those 'enemies' coming to her defense was fantastic. I decided to re-read 'The Secret' and I am cracking up from the first chapter. And yes, I am so perplexed why there isn't a write up of her in a major paper. Only the obits. So weird.

Another author has passed away. Julie Garwood, one of the titans of romance has passed. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has a really nice write up of her. She is a favorite of mine. Her book 'The Bride' is a seminal book in romance and introduced humor and quirky heroines. RIP Ms. Garwood.

The scene from Kill Bill Vol. 1 where The Bride tells O-Ren they have unfinished business. Everything about this scene is fire. Fave parts: - The close focus on Uma's lips in profile as she is yelling her challenge at O-Ren - O-Ren's face when she realizes who it is - The shocking, abrupt violence of The Bride cutting off Sophie's arm - The hysterical, over the top flourishes of the Crazy 88's as they fling open the doors - And finally the Ennio Morricone 'Death Rides A Horse (From Man to Man)' music is just the *chef's kiss*

Do a re-read of select books in Steve Miller and Sharon Lee's Liaden Universe which I haven't read in years so they are like new. I enjoyed Local Custom which as I was reading I was impressed all over again how the authors use language and linguistics as a major part of their world building. Just finished Scout's Progress which I had remembered was about domestic violence. But had forgotten about the found family aspect and camaraderie between pilots. The DV stuff was worse than I remembered but the basic story is great and pretty triumphant. I loved the fact that the main character, Aelliana, was a brilliant (and famous) mathematician who won a spaceship in a card game and was using that as her exit strategy to get away from her abusive older brother. The DV stuff was heartbreaking because it shows that no matter how well respected and thought of and , yes, even revered amongst the pilots Aelliana was, her own self esteem had been worn away by years of abuse. Luckily the actual parts showing her awful brother were brief.

Uh.. say what now?

Yeah there is a multi paragraph anecdote. But basically they needed hair and make up touch ups for a baseball promo/shoot. Nicole was really salty about her wig situation. Apparently it was bad. The way the book makes it sound from Jones, the only time Nicole was in the hair/make up was when he was with her in the trailer, so he was around her the whole time in hair and makeup. And they had been cracking jokes about the hair. Ryan says she has never been able to find a person who actually witnessed the incident. The hairstylist is apparently writing a book/project about her own Hollywood experiences and refused to comment, only to say that even though she was only there a very brief time, working on SH was the worst project she had ever worked on.

from what I can tell Season 1 people were Orlando Jones who is the only person other that Shernold Edwards who go on record with their government names. But a lot of what she talks about comes from three people she only refers to as Robert, Frank and Paul. Frank and Paul are definitely POC. Not sure about Robert. But they were all there from day 1. Based on what they say, I want to think they were either in the writers' room or fairly up there in the pecking order around production. Robert is the one who speaks the angriest about what happened to Nicole. In fact he said about Tom "On any other show he would have been the one with the big problem." He quit kinda in disgust and anger over her treatment during S1. Frank speaks about how ineffective Marc Goffman was as a leader from the beginning. Also he was not a genre guy so he never was comfortable with the show he was actually running. Paul talks about the break up of the Kurtzmann and Orci partnership and how it was like a divorce and contributed to an air of tenseness. One of the does explicitly state that the EPs were poisoning the writers against Nicole. The way it reads is like they were bullies and everyone else fell in line behind them. Also the 'biting' incident took place in S1. Somehow it 'leaked' and someone reached out to Orlando. He denied that it happened. He said that he got a call from the show's PR department to never respond to the incident again. Which is interesting considering that Mo Ryan wrote a sympathetic article 2 years later after Abbie had been killed off. She received a unsolicited call from the same PR person

I decided to watch this solely for Marshawn Lynch and he did not disappoint. I especially loved that he simply refused to allow Lance Armstrong to use his bathroom. REFUSED. And said it was because Lance looked like he ate lima beans and he did not want no lima bean shit in his bathroom. I was on the floor. I cannot stand Lance Armstrong and was so hoping Marshawn would not be polite. He wasn't and so day made. Whoever is voicing their "AI" has a nice dry wit. I loved the intro of Natash Leggoro 'Pedian'. LOL At first I was confused why Ariel Winter was squeeing about Lance Armstrong and then she called him 'so cool' and I was like, girl, you need to Google. But then it clicked she was confusing him with Neil Armstrong, and I was so embarrassed for her. Porsha : 'I'mma put astronaut on my IG bio for real." Did Natasha Leggero called Willaim Shatner "Shatty Daddy?" I think she did. HA! Everybody just seemed to be having fun so it was a nice first ep.

I got my copy of the book and went straight to the Sleepy Hollow chapter. And yeah. It was enraging. There is an air of... gaslighting, I want to say of the fans that kinda comes through. A lot of what fans suspected was true. They were deliberately side-lining Abby. They brought on Jenny as a possible replacement. Both Nicole and Tom had problems adjusting to being the leads of the show. But, as one person put it, only one of them was given any grace. Ryan makes a point to say that multiple sources on the show told her that both Nicole and Tom went throught 'steep learning curves that sometimes involved friction' but only Beharie's was 'weaponized against her in a way that Tom's was not.' Several BTS people left the show after the first season because of the toxic environment. S1 had multiple writers of color. Season 2 only had one. And that person was very careful about how they rendered opinions. They were filming in North Carolina - hot, miserable - Tom had a driver and got a custom made wig. Nicole had to provide her own transportation, had to be in HAMU 2 hours earlier than anyone else, they janked up her hair because they wouldn't hire someone to do black hair and had to fix it in post, gave her uncomfortable not-custom wigs, when she wanted to wear her hair natural a group of white men made the decision whether or not it would look 'professional' for her to wear her own hair. She finally got permission to bring in her own hair team in S3. She worked longer hours than Tom. And the infamous 'bite'? According to Orlando Jones -- nobody saw it happen and there was always someone around. Not only that he was supposedly there when the supposed incident occurred and they were all joking around. It became a story 2 years after it supposedly happened because 1) Nicole had made noises about wanting to leave and 2) the network began a coordinated whisper campaign to pre-empt the complaints they'd get when she was gone. The EPs were very much aware of her vocal fanbase. That whisper campaign got her blacklisted. And there is so much more not even just Nicole. Orlando and the one of the last WOC female writers Shernold Edwards are on record talking about a LOT of stuff. But Nicole took the brunt of it. My biggest surprise? Nicole and Tom did not get along. This breaks my heart because in all the of publicity stuff they seemed like they were good friends.

On a funny note... this is not a vent but a typo that went out in an email where luckily all involved had a good sense of humor about it and have been cracking jokes at my (well deserved) expense. I am working at compiling all of our year end data analytics. It all has to be done by June 15 for a July 1 lock down/publication date. I had a department chair email me wanting to know if I had received all his department data and if everything was ok and if I needed anything else from him. He copied his co department chair, his associate Dean, his Dean, The Provost, and my boss. I emailed him back (replied all) and this is the email: "Everything on your end is looking good. I notice that one of Dr. [..] grades from her [..] class section 03 is still missing. In the final report that will go down as an unreported grade in the grade distribution report. If you like you can give her a nude and let her know she has until June 14th to get that in so that it will make the cut." I sent it along. But after I hit send I decided I wanted to also send it to another of my data colleagues so she'd know. I went to my sent folder to forward it and re-read it and read the 'you can give her a nude' line in horror. So in pure sitcom fashion, I sent everyone a new email highlighting that and said "ARghhhh....I meant you can send her a Nudge. A Nudge. I am sure you are aware I would never advocate the other." Yeah, Like I said luckily everyone's inner comedian came out. My boss said to me in a later Teams message, 'I about died. You are usually so careful and deliberate in your communications, you know I will dine on this for awhile, right?' Sigh.

The hubris of people! She is mad because one person gave her a 4-star review and therefore messed up her perfect five star average. What the hell. This ain't the Dean's List. You aren't trying to graduate Summa cum laude. And as people rightly pointed out, there are superb literary classics that don't have a perfect five star average. What an idiot.

I made something called a Tunacado. It came across my feed and I was 'dang, that looks good' so I tried it and dang, it was good. Basically is a pimped out tuna salad on a fried sour dough bread with tomato, avocado, and two kinds of pesto. I didn't have any of the spicy pesto in the recipe, so I substituted a thai spicy chili crisp (I actually put that on so many things...) Anyway here is the food porn link for it. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqIoK0cjg-I/

Ok, so they did not whiff it, imo. But they also did not 100% stick the landing. As a finale I think it worked well. Overall, I think in one episode it embodied the best parts and worst parts of the season. And there were some nice call backs, I loved the The team stuff. Everything with the guys -- the game, their interactions with each other, the video, the crying, them singing -- I watched all of it with a stupid grin on my face. I enjoyed these guys and each one built a personality that even when some had very little screen time. I mean, Jan Maas has probably said the rough equivalent of ten sentences ovefr the entirety of the run of the show, but I know Jan Maas. And Cumberbatch. And the full circle of Zoreaux becoming "Zorro". And how apropos that Dani gave Zoreaux his Zorro mask? And a great payoff with Colin getting to kiss his fella. I loved that no matter how uneven the season was, Higgins stayed Higgins and was a delight from start to finish. I loved him and Keeley trying to get the tea from Rebecca about Rupert's divorce. The Pub crew was perfect. From them buying Rebecca's lunch to them buying shares. All three also had very distinct personalities. Trent's existence. Also his reaction to Ted and Beard reading his book. "I want to be a Diamond Dog." Probably the one scene that got the biggest laugh from me the entire episode. The end tag seeing where everyone was. I admit, I am a sucker to know that everyone was in a good place. And the one thing I wanted to happen was Rupert getting his comeuppance. The episode delivered this and did me one better, they did it publicly. His humiliation was public like Rebecca's was. But I think the reason it didn't 100% percent work was three-fold. First is Ted. I know we've all griped about how absent he seemed all season. But he also just seemed subdued. There was a real lack of energy about him this episode which made it feel heavy. Second is Keeley/Roy. They really damaged Keeley's character arc for me. And they fucked over her and Roy for no reason with no real satisfactory payoff. And third is Nate. I am resigned with how they brought Nate back. I will give credit, his apology to Ted was good (but Ted still ended up comforting him...). But ... yeah... it still didn't satisfy me. His return should have felt triumphant for the viewers and it just kinda whimpered for me. There was one point when he came shuffling in as the assistant Kit man and he kinda looked like Biff from Back to the Future after Marty came back and changed everything. I feel like of all the storylines they whiffed Nate's the most. But like I said overall, the finale was fine. For me, Ted Lasso is one of my absolute favorite literary tropes. The trope where the outsider comes into a closed system (a family, a community, a team etc.) and acts as an agent of chaos and change. They typically make the people inside that system examine themselves, see themselves in a way they never had before, learn about themselves, and evolve and end up in a happier and better place. Ted is 100% that and in the end succeeded for what it was. And for that I feel like the finale was a success.

Same. I saw on her book blurb she interviewed Orlando Jones. And one of the writers on that show already has gone on record before about how the Fox execs tried to gaslight her about Nikkie Beharie.

Yeah I never gave this show half a thought but I've always liked Mo Ryan. One thing that I really respect is that she discloses that she has a quasi-professional friendship with Lindelof. And in her conversations with him, he did not let her relationship with him color how she portrays him. She holds his feet to the fire and challenges him on his statements. It is a really good example of how journalism should work. To his credit he does not 100% refute anything. Sure he is 'shocked' and 'appalled' and even more damning to me, apparently 'oblivious' to the hazing the POC and women writers went through on the daily, but at least he is owning some of it. Cuse, otoh, just sounds like a petty shit. It kinda tracks that the real shit show started when he got hired onto the show. And in typical fashion everything everyone else is saying is a lie. But, again, Mo with her meticulousness got at least two people to back each other up on those stories. There is a one of the writers on twitter right now who is coming with even more receipts. Not only does Cuse come off as a racist POS but it sounds like he routinely took credit for other people's work on the show. Also he whines "I am just hearing about this! nobody complained!" How long have you worked in this industry? You can't be that naive. Of course POC writers were not going to complain against a powerful white showrunner. They know that if they did, it would result in nothing but them being labeled difficult and blackballed. Lindelof is already doing the first lap of his apology tour with a lot of public mea culpas. Cuse, though, I really hope this does him some damage.

New Trailer:

Yikes. Yikes. Yikes. There is a new book coming out by Mo Ryan and she has written an article about some of the stuff in the book on Vanity Fair about behind the scenes stuff on Lost. I never got into Lost but holy man, it sounds like atmosphere horrible, toxic, sexist and racist as fuck. It really makes Damon Lindelof look really, really bad. The Vanity Fair article is riveting reading and really rather sickening. A few things that jumped out at me: and Harold Perrineau talking about how he was fired from ‘LOST’ after he asked that POC characters receive more storytelling. “ And The writer's room being a racist cesspit And so much worse... The discussion with the showrunners regarding how Mr, Eko's death would be written (Mr. Eko was played by black actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje who wanted to leave the show)