This week, Kris returns to the podcast all the way from Iceland to tell us facts about volcanoes, the sheep to human ratio, and what the TSA makes of peanut butter.
Official Recommendations
From Kris: Fairyland (2023)
Kris’s official recommendation this week is Fairyland, a film based on Alysia Abbott’s Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father. It follows Alysia from the age of six when she loses her mother to a car accident and moves with her gay father to San Francisco in the 70s.
From Tara: In What World by Bridget Morrissey
Tara’s official recommendation this week is In What World by Bridget Morrissey, which did the thing that all readers hope for: it surprised her. High school rivals reconnect as adults and are given a glimpse at all the kinds of worlds as they search for their missing mentor. Is this vague? Absolutely. Tara wants you to go in as blind as possible so you can have that same surprising treat. Check it out!
Works/People Discussed
- Love is Blind: UK (Netflix)
- Jeopardy! Masters (ABC)
- Balatro (LocalThunk)
- Power Wash Simulator
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe
- The Forever Match by Clare Lydon
Support & Follow the Show
Transcript
>> Tara Scott: Hey, everyone. Welcome to Queerly Recommended, the podcast where we recommend queer books, films, TV shows and more. I’m Tara Scott and I review sapphic fiction at the Lesbian Review and smart trashy books. And this week I’m recommending a sapphic multiverse romance.
>> Kris Bryant: And I’m Kris Bryant, a contemporary romance writer for Bold Strokes books.
And this week I’m recommending a coming of age drama film, from 2023.
>> Tara Scott: Ooh. All right, that’s intriguing. Okay, so last time you were not here, and I was joined by friend of the pod, Bex Quirk, and she mentioned something about. We talked about how you were off on a vacation and I wouldn’t let her guess where it was because I said you would do the big reveal.
>> Kris Bryant: Yes.
>> Tara Scott: When you got back. So where did you go and what did you do?
>> Kris Bryant: So I went to Iceland.
>> Tara Scott: Yay.
>> Kris Bryant: I took some amazing pictures and I had an amazing time. Amaze, amaze, amaze. It was thumbs down. You know, it was one of those. I think I mentioned at one point, like, I kind of had like a little break down and I was like, I want to do something. We, need to get out of here. And I didn’t want to go to Europe. I didn’t want to go, you know, because I lived there and I went to a lot of different places while I lived there. Not that I’m, you know, anybody. It’s. It’s a privilege to go to a different country for sure. But I wanted to try something completely different. And so on a whim, I mentioned Iceland. I was like, eh, ah, let’s go to Iceland. Because why not?
>> Tara Scott: Hm. You know?
>> Kris Bryant: Oh my God, it’s absolutely gorgeous there. So beautiful. Like you couldn’t take a bad picture. We kind of like home based at the capital Reykjavik. And from there we took tours. Every day we had a tour. But I will say this. So we flew over, my connection was in Minneapolis, so Minneapolis over to Iceland. That was only a six hour flight.
>> Tara Scott: That’s not bad.
>> Kris Bryant: Totally doable. So if you flew, you know, like me, I’m in the center. So if I flew to, like, east coast, you know, two and a half, three hours, and then another maybe three hours from there to go to Iceland. So I highly recommend, if you’re on the east coast, go m. It’s amazing. And it’s like the most LGBTQ friendly country in the world. It’s fantastic. Like, hold hands, no big deal. Everything’s gay, everybody’s gay. It’s amazing. It truly is, like very Very nice and considerate to the queer people. And I, I loved it so much.
So on the flight over there though, it’s two o’ clock in the morning and the pilot comes on, you know, the plane’s dark, everybody’s sleeping. The pilot comes on with his pilot voice and he’s like, so if you happen to be awake. Okay, I’ll do it without that because we want to hear what I’m saying. Yeah. Be awake. Look to your left, you can see the northern lights. right.
>> Tara Scott: Oh wow.
>> Kris Bryant: Of course. I’m like, I’m looking out. I’m like, oh my God. So yeah, so Debbie got her camera out and she was taking pictures and it was amazing. And I’m like, we can just turn this plane around. Because that’s what I wanted to ultimately do. Lights and boom, done. Bucket list.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah.
>> Kris Bryant: So we get there and so like the temperature is in the mid to upper 50s. So it only rained one day. Like it was almost like the first day it was kind of raining a little bit. But we went on a speedboat whale watching trip.
>> Tara Scott: That’s cool.
>> Kris Bryant: Which by the way, if you’ve never been on a speedboat and you’re looking for whales.
>> Kris Bryant: You have to straddle this really thing. It’s like just like it’s part of the seat you straddle so you don’t fall and fly out. It was pretty fast. It was very interesting. We saw whales, we saw some porpoises. We saw a puffin.
>> Tara Scott: Kris. That’s so cool. I know.
>> Kris Bryant: Like there was not nothing bad. Not I mean it’s over now. Nothing bad happened in Iceland. It was all good. I mean I did kind of tweak my back the first couple days because we over packed and we had way too much luggage and yeah, that’s terrible. So I will pack better. It’s kind of like every time, every year I go to P town, I have like three suitcases and it’s two suitcases now.
I’m like, can I actually get away with a carry on? You know?
>> Tara Scott: Yeah, that’s right.
>> Kris Bryant: The more you go, you learn what to wear. But I will say our wardrobe was like perfect. Like we nailed the wardrobe. We nailed it.
>> Tara Scott: Nice. Very happy about that.
>> Kris Bryant: We went north. Like our second tour was up to like where they filmed some of Game of Thrones. So we got to see a lot of the landscape there. And tour guides are so they’re so much fun, you know, you, me, I just kind of show up and I’m like, oh cool. You know, because my pants are like, I don’t plan anything. I don’t. Like, it was hard for me to plan this trip because you had to plan it. And I’m like, I hate being tied down, so. But I was like sitting on the edge of my seat listening to these tour guides. And Iceland is basically volcano. It’s just volcanoes. There’s like, I don’t know how many volcanoes. 130 volcanoes or something. And there’s some active ones and like most of the landscape, a lot. Okay, how do I want to say this? The landscape is basically a bunch of lava that’s covered with either lichen or moss or something. So if you go south and go east, the lava fields look like you’re on Mars. It doesn’t look like you’re on this planet at all. It was the most interesting thing ever. Like, it really sounds amazing. I don’t even know, like, like again, I’ve been a lot of places on this earth and that was. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. It was kind of like, it could be the year 800, it could be the year 2027, it could be the year 3000. You could not tell. You could. It was just. No, you couldn’t tell at all. And there’s only like 375, 000 people in the whole country. That’s it.
>> Tara Scott: Whoa.
>> Kris Bryant: I’m so glad I did tours every day instead of driving because there’s like no shoulder and there’s nowhere to. I mean, there’s no traffic though either. So it’s like, hey, let’s get a car. We can stop as long as we want at this, you know, this bakery or this waterfall or whatever. But also like, if something happened to the car, I’d be completely like, this is it the apocalypse? I’m dead. I’m like, nobody’s gonna find me for days. Yeah, but it was absolutely beautiful. It was amazing. I took. We saw waterfalls, we went to Diamond Beach. So basically this, the sand on the beaches, especially down south, it’s just black. It’s black sand, it’s lava. Oh, wow. things a lava. And the glaciers, bits and pieces of the glaciers chip off and land on the beach and so it looks like diamonds.
>> Tara Scott: That sounds incredible. Are you gonna write a book set there?
>> Kris Bryant: I don’t know. I mean, I can’t really say. I can’t say if I will or not.
>> Kris Bryant: We’ll just have to see. Also, it’s really hard to pronounce names and things and. Yeah, it’s super hard like we kind of had nicknames for things and we tried to say it like just between us so that nobody could hear us because we didn’t want people to think that we were making fun.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah.
>> Kris Bryant: But also, I just can’t, I can’t pronounce it. Like it would take some time to learn how to, how to pronounce things. Like our first tour we went north and I don’t know what it’s called, but it sounded like snuffleophagus. So that’s what I said. And that was kind of what we called it. But that’s not what it was called. It’s called something else. But that was the word I know that I associated with it.
>> Kris Bryant: And so then my, here’s my favorite. So, I mean everything was beautiful. We had great tour guides. And one of the things, like it’s real hard to grow trees there because there’s no roots, there’s no earth. You know, it’s like.
And so the the tour guide was saying if you ever get lost in the forest, just stand up because everything’s so small. Like the birch trees are really like birch bushes and there are some fir trees, but they’re small. Yeah, it’s just, it’s, it’s just such a different place. I loved it. I thought it was beautiful. My favorite though is the very last night we had to catch it. We had to get up early on Saturday at 5am to catch to go to the airport.
>> Kris Bryant: And so we had planned a tour at night to go see the northern, lights. We’re like, okay, it’s a beautiful day. You know, you never know if you’re going to see it. And this is at the very, very beginning of being able to see them. Like the very beginning.
>> Kris Bryant: So we decided, okay, so one tour got canceled and they put us on another one. It was a couple hours later and I’m like, we’re never going to sleep tonight. Like, ok, we’re here for this. So we get into this. Like all of our tours that we did were minibuses. Like little small, like 10 people, you know, that was it.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah.
>> Kris Bryant: And everything is WI fi. Like they’re very like advanced that way. Everything is WI fi. You always want the WI fi password. And they have like plugins and ports. you know, I guess I haven’t been on a bus in like 30 years or something because like I don’t know that they have all these things. Maybe buses do. I just don’t know it. But they have like all these chargers, it was, it was great. It’s perfect. So our tour guide, his name is Freeman and he’s like, I’m going to take you outside of the city. so we get away from light pollution and plus it doesn’t get dark till like 11:30 at night during the time. Time of year. Yeah. But he’s like, so I’m gonna drive for about an hour. You know, there’s a 20% chance we’re gonna see it because he has like these apps that he uses for like activity where he can figure out where it’s going to be. And then 10 minutes later he’s like, I’m going to pull over because we have a lot of action above us. And so we’re all like looking because, you know, the skylight, it’s really nice. So he pulls over and sure enough, like, here they are. Boom. They come out and it’s. They snake across the sky and it’s. And sometimes you can see pink. And it was absolutely gorgeous. And there was one part, it looked like somebody took a paintbrush and just brushed it right across us. And so I was taking pictures and he’s like, videos don’t really work well. But Debbie still did some videos. I posted one really cool picture. It almost looks almost m. Alien. Ish. But when we got to the videos, when we came back to town, Debbie turned on the videos and like the paintbrush was moving super fast. It was like a waterfall. It was so fast that you couldn’t see it. Like it was moving so fast you couldn’t see it with your eye. But the video caught it. It was so interesting and it was just beautiful. So what he does, he said, we’re not going to get a better place. We’re not going to see better. We’re just going to stay here. So we stayed there for maybe like a half an hour, 45 minutes. And then he took us to another place where we might see it. And then we had hot cocoa and cookies and we just talked and hung out and stuff. Out in the dark in the middle of nowhere. Sure, I’m safe.
But it was a phenomenal, experience. I’d go back and, one of the cool things I did was I reached out to the library, one of the main libraries there. They have like 13, like just within the city. Yeah. And so the main library, I said, hey, can I donate some of my books? And they’re like, we would love it if you’d like to. Like. Well. And it wasn’t even that I said, I would like to come out and donate the books and maybe talk about my books. If anybody’s interested, you know, I can do a talk. And they’re like, yes, if you want to bring like cookies or something, we’ll have coffee and tea. And this became a huge thing. And I was like, you know, like, oh, well, well, you’ll have an hour to talk. I’m like, oh my gosh. Like when I go on a panel now, it’s like. And they were like, stop you mid sentence. They’ll be like, you’re done. So I had an hour to come up with material. I got there, I was super nervous and I had a 10 page, like, thing that I typed out and I was going to talk about everything and like, this is gone. Like, I started talking and I like deviated so much. I was really nervous. The ex prime minister’s wife was in the crowd, was in the audience.
>> Tara Scott: So cool.
>> Kris Bryant: So I completely forgot everything that I was going to do and I was super nervous. I was going to read kind of a spicy scene from Temptation. But given my. Not only was she in, the.
>> Tara Scott: At the public library.
>> Kris Bryant: It’s at the public library.
>> Kris Bryant: But there was also. There’s some children playing in another room.
>> Tara Scott: Yep.
>> Kris Bryant: So I had to change my reading. So there was a bookmark and one in Temptation that I was reading and I thought it was a place that I marked to read. So I started reading and I’m like, in my head I’m thinking, why the am I reading the scene? It’s nothing. The scene doesn’t do anything. People don’t know anything about this book. And here I am reading this weird scene and I had to try to talk myself stop talking. Let’s move on. Let’s move on. So I kept reading and I was like, I’ll get to the end. I’ll get to the end. So that part was terrible.
and then I did like only like the first couple pages from Listen. And I just talked about the process and, you know, trusting editors and, you know, why it’s important to have editors. You know, it was a good conversation. I finished like within an hour without even trying. It just like wound down to that. So great experience. And Claire Ashton’s books were there.
>> Tara Scott: No way.
>> Kris Bryant: Everybody, nobody else was there but Clare. So now me and Clare, we’re in Iceland together.
>> Tara Scott: So good.
>> Kris Bryant: Oh. To be fair, I also did donate, two of Krystina Rivers’ books. She. She gave them to me before my trip and then I just brought them down. Why not all right.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah, of course. So now there’s three of you in Iceland.
>> Kris Bryant: So now there’s three of us in Iceland. That’s true. So yeah. Yeah. Look at us go. Mm. Yeah. So that was, that was kind of exciting. so I will go back a thousand times. I would go back there. Good.
For sure. I mean, the only drawback, it’s pretty expensive. the food is really expensive. And then, if you take a cab or taxi anywhere, they have Lyft. But for some reason I couldn’t get Lyft to work there. Oh.
>> Tara Scott: All the food probably has to be imported, right?
>> Kris Bryant: Yeah.
>> Tara Scott: Or a lot of it.
>> Kris Bryant: I mean, a lot of it they have. So obviously, because there’s no like soil, they can’t really grow anything. The only thing that grows out in the wild is rye. So they have a lot of gluten free beer and things like that. And it’s actually really, really good.
>> Kris Bryant: But they have greenhouses, lots of greenhouses. That’s where they grow their tomatoes and all their vegetables. Tomatoes are a big thing there. But they also have sheep. Like they’re like 2 million sheep. There’s a hundred. There’s 375,000 people and like 2 million sheep. And then they have hors horses. They do eat a lot of sheep. And of course fish. M. And they have cheese, which you would think I’d be okay with. And the cheese was good. Like, so what we ended up doing, because it was really expensive, we just went to the grocery store and got bread and cheese and we had sandwiches that way. Breakfast. That was a good breakfast or a snack. And I’m so happy and thankful that I brought with me some Clif bars and some protein bars and yeah, chicken sticks, things like that so we could get food. And I also brought peanut butter.
>> Tara Scott: We didn’t.
>> Kris Bryant: Oh, that’s a good idea. Because, But peanut butter is a good idea. And also, side note, it is considered a liquid. So do not think you can pack your Jif peanut butter in a carry on. It needs to go in your, checked baggage.
>> Tara Scott: What?
>> Kris Bryant: Psa, TSA announcement. There you go. Boom. Did not know that. Know that now.
But I had packed it so in my check.
>> Tara Scott: So weird. How does TSA even have enough people left on staff to check for that kind? That’s not nice. I’m not. I shouldn’t joke about your federal employees.
>> Kris Bryant: I got being understaffed. I got through Iceland with knives in my, my carry ons. But man, when I hit Minneapolis, they’re like Absolutely not, man. I didn’t know they were there.
>> Kris Bryant: But it was a great experience. the food and transportation is expensive, but highly recommend it. We, need to go. one of the librarians was telling us that she grew up on the, east side of Iceland and it was much prettier. Like, how can it be prettier? Like, this was literally breathtaking. This side of it.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah.
>> Kris Bryant: Just went north and somewhat southeast. So next time we’ll go. We’ll pick up in southeast and go all the way east. So.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah, I’m excited.
>> Kris Bryant: So it’ll happen again.
>> Tara Scott: That’s amazing.
>> Kris Bryant: Yeah. And jet, lag was not a problem coming back. I like rolled right into my work week like it was no big deal.
>> Tara Scott: Oh, wow. Good for you.
>> Kris Bryant: Yeah, Whatever we did, we did it right. So, you know, it was perfect. Let’s see what else is going on. We, got football starting up again.
I’m very excited about it. You know how I am about football.
>> Tara Scott: It’s the one thing. You’re religious about
>> Kris Bryant: football. And my quarterback is going to be playing in the first game. He got hurt last year.
>> Tara Scott: Oh.
>> Kris Bryant: he like tore his ACL and a couple of things and so they didn’t think he’d be back. And surprise, he’s back.
>> Tara Scott: Poor bastard. Hopefully he’s doing well.
>> Kris Bryant: Yeah, I think so. You know, and I’m in like three leagues, so you’re gonna be busy. One is actually with some writers.
>> Tara Scott: Okay.
>> Kris Bryant: They’re already talking, so.
>> Kris Bryant: Smacking.
>> Tara Scott: Are you also talking?
>> Kris Bryant: Oh my. I trash talk all the time. I could be in last place and I was still like, I own it. Like, oh, it’s terrible, but I love it. It’s so much fun.
That’s everything that’s going on with me. What about you? what’s new?
>> Tara Scott: All right, well, the kids went back to school last week, which is great. Weirdly, again, I don’t know why they have to go back before Labor Day, but my oldest started high school, went to school for three days and then was home sick with a virus. Kindergarten all over again. Because it’s a high school that like three other schools feed into it. So I don’t know if it’s like, it’s probably one of those other kids from one of those other schools.
>> Kris Bryant: I don’t know.
>> Tara Scott: I’m just making stuff up. So it’s been pretty chill. It meant that we had a very, very chill Labor Day weekend. Didn’t really do much. It was actually pride weekend in Calgary, but it also was like Cold and rainy the whole weekend.
>> Kris Bryant: Oh, that sucks.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah, it was one of those, like, would m you like to go stand at a parade in the cold, in the rain? I would not. No. Thank you. I’m good. I could be proud at home in my pajama.
>> Kris Bryant: I can be proud and supportive just, by my bed.
>> Tara Scott: I can do that from anywhere. Yeah, no, it’s just kind of the. We’re. We’re getting back into the swing of the usual schedule.
Oh, Henry, this is also. Also, the fun thing about naming your dog after a celebrity, and especially a punk singer, is that you get to say things like, also, Henry Rollins got neutered recently.
>> Kris Bryant: Got snipped. He got snipped.
>> Tara Scott: Henry Rollins got sniffed. Yeah. So the vet said no running or jumping for two weeks, and within an hour of being at home, he had jumped on and off the couch about four times. And we were like. And they said, like, if you need to, we can give you some meds
>> Kris Bryant: to calm him down.
>> Tara Scott: We needed to. Yeah. And we did. And we got that for him. And he would still try to, like, jump and bite at his sister. Luckily, he doesn’t need the cone anymore, thank goodness, even though it has not been. Tomorrow would be two full weeks because he bruised the out of my calves ramming into them with his comb. And then poor Ember, our other dog. Oh, my God. Like, I think he was just trying to play with her, as usual. But the cone hurts when it comes at you. Yeah, right. And she’s just like, ah, no. Ah, like, backing away. And we were like, oh, my God, he’s terrorized. Well, at first we thought he was terrorizing her, and then we realized, no, he’s trying to play with her like usual and doesn’t understand. He has this hard plastic thing around his neck. So we are all much happier now that he is out of his cone. And, yeah, he didn’t let anything stop him. He’s good to go and more aerodynamic, I guess.
>> Kris Bryant: I dread. I dread it for Teddy. I dread it.
>> Tara Scott: I’m not gonna lie. It is a little weird. There’s times where it’s like, you look and it’s like, oh, there’s nothing there. Okay.
>> Kris Bryant: Yeah. I don’t look enough to see them, to know them, because he’s so horrible.
>> Tara Scott: This dog likes to fall asleep on his back, with his back paws up in the air, absolutely spreading a way. That was like, woof. That’s. The dog needed pants. And now it’s like, it’s fine. Yeah. There. Well, there were Times I would just like pull the blanket over. It was like, nobody needs to see those.
Yeah. All right. Other than going on a fancy trip to Iceland, have you been reading or watching anything recently?
>> Kris Bryant: Well, the new season of Love is Blind UK started.
>> Tara Scott: And how is that?
>> Kris Bryant: So I just needed background because I kind of started doing this thing online where I’m bidding. I do this bidding thing. So, bidding. It’s it’s here local. It’s. Anyway, so I’m just kind of like.
>> Tara Scott: Is it like the poly market stuff?
>> Kris Bryant: Okay. It’s like Amazon returns. It’s a, it’s a website that’s like, that has like Amazon returns and you bid on things.
>> Tara Scott: Oh, so more like an auction.
>> Kris Bryant: Yeah, like auctions, yeah.
>> Tara Scott: Oh, okay.
>> Kris Bryant: Okay. I can’t even like, I am in so much trouble because it took two carloads to get my latest. But to be fair, I’m doing a lot of stuff for the shelters.
>> Tara Scott: Are we still talking about Love Is Blind uk?
>> Kris Bryant: Oh, no, I’m sorry.
>> Tara Scott: I feel like I’m high right now. What’s happening?
>> Kris Bryant: Well, so basically, so. So I needed something put on the background. that’s where that came from. So yeah. Then I got sidetracked because today I had to go pick up a whole bunch of stuff and it was terrible.
>> Tara Scott: Got it. I’ve caught up.
>> Kris Bryant: I understand.
>> Tara Scott: Okay. Yes.
>> Kris Bryant: So Love is Blind uk. I like it. I hope that people stay together. And I kind of cheated. I kind of googled a little bit.
>> Tara Scott: It’s hard not to.
>> Kris Bryant: It is, you know, because you know what’s out there and it’s like, yes. I wish I didn’t know that it, that I wasn’t up to date on it because it’s fun to go on the journey at the same time, but if you know that you can like ruin it by reading ahead. And I did because I just can’t wait. And this is kind of like you reading the end of the book or you used to.
>> Tara Scott: I haven’t done it, in months. That’s honestly, like, now that I have my nervous system under control, I don’t have to do that anymore.
>> Kris Bryant: Maybe I need to get my nervous system under control because I actually googled what happens and like, who stays together. Because I didn’t think that we were there yet. I. I just thought it was up. you know, you watch like the first six episodes and then, then it’s like weekly and you, you go along. That’s why I thought it was. But no, it like full on spoiled it for me.
>> Tara Scott: Oh, no. Yeah. Are you gonna finish it?
>> Kris Bryant: I think I will. I still kind of want to see how they play out as far as, like, just how people behave and how some of them. I just think, oh, they’re not gonna make it, are they? I don’t know. Maybe. I’m also watching Jeopardy. Masters.
>> Tara Scott: Okay.
>> Kris Bryant: That is like the best of the best. And I love Victoria Gross. She is one of my favorite players and she’s the best. I mean, like, I love this group of Masters, so I really don’t care who wins, but of course I’m pulling for Victoria because, you know, she’s a woman and she’s fantastic.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah.
>> Kris Bryant: Like, I. I think we should get the. The winner should be announced this week. I think so. Were watching. Although here’s. Here’s a funny story. Can I tell you this? Because I’m all over the place right now.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah, why not?
>> Kris Bryant: I was doing a football draft.
Ah. Sunday night, and they had one of the Jeopardy. They had, I think, celebrity, Jeopardy. Oh, hey, Celebrity Jeopardy. And they had a. One of the Double Jeopardy questions. You know the. They get the. Oh, you get the Double Jeopardy.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah.
>> Kris Bryant: It’s like there are 30 people in this room and they. And the question came up and I knew the answer. Nice. I loved it. It was so much fun. I was like, I never get to show off my Jeopardy Skills. And I did. I like, landed. And I was like, boom. And like, everybody was quiet.
>> Tara Scott: I’m like, yes, I have the weirdest brain right now. I had like a terrible, terrible sleep last night. And so you said celebrity Jeopardy. And I imagined. Do you remember when Saturday Night Live used to do Celebrity Jeopardy? Oh, yes, yes. In like the 90s.
>> Kris Bryant: Tom Hanks. Yeah, There were some good ones on there.
>> Tara Scott: There were some really good ones. That was like, quite far back. Norm MacDonald playing. Was it Burt Reynolds he was playing?
>> Kris Bryant: Probably. I could totally see that.
>> Tara Scott: I think so. Anyway. Anything else you’ve been reading or watching?
>> Kris Bryant: No, I think that’s it. I mean, that’s enough.
>> Kris Bryant: I do some more sleep too. But, what about you? What’s, what’s going on? What are you doing?
>> Tara Scott: Okay, so something that Neil and I like to do is listen to. There are certain podcasts that we both like, or we’ll find like an episode of a different podcast that maybe we don’t listen to it consistently, but, like, we really like who the guest is and so we like to listen to podcasts together. But I can’t just sit and listen to something. I need to have something I can kind of do at the same time. So before I played Balatro while listening. And remember, that’s that, like, poker game that I told you about. I played it on my Nintendo. You can get it on your phone. It’s one where, like, it’s all these different. It’s like poker, but it has, like, all these different twists on it. Like different types of jokers that modify the conditions, the game, whatever. Anyway, I finished that game. I completely, completely finished that game. I put, like, more than 600 hours into it. It was crazy.
I, know now I didn’t do it all at once. It took, like, well over a year to do it, but still. And so I have a friend who has an extremely stressful job, and she’s like, if you want the chillest game ever for your Nintendo, get Power Wash Simulator. And I’m like, what are you talking about? And it’s basically like, job, the video game, because you get these jobs to go out and power wash these. Like, you know, somebody’s backyard will be covered in filth. And I’m like, what happened to this place that these people and I started playing it yesterday while we were listening to podcasts and, oh, my God, it’s the chillest game ever. Like, I’m never gonna do the time to it has timed challenges. And I’m like, no, fuck that. Why. Why would I want to make this stressful? The whole point is I can just aim water at things and clean it off while I listen to, like, a Dungeons and Dragons Life Play podcast. So that’s been surprisingly fun. Also, Neil and I, like, we’ve seen all the Marvel movies before, but our oldest got very interested because when we were. I think I told you, when we were visiting my parents, we watched the first three of the Tom Holland Spider man movies in anticip hat coming out.
So that got our kid interested in seeing all the MCU films.
>> Kris Bryant: Nice.
>> Tara Scott: And here’s the thing. I’m not going to watch all of them because there’s certain ones I just don’t like, but I am joining on the good ones. I still think, like, I love the Captain America movies. Those first three are so good. So good. And especially, I think Winter Soldier is probably my favorite of the three.
>> Kris Bryant: Really?
>> Tara Scott: Y. I didn’t care for the first two Iron man movies, so I didn’t watch those. But I watched. I rewatched the third Iron man movie. I forgot how good that is because it’s a Shane Black movie, and Shane Black does fun movies. He did like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. And the nice guys. Okay, yeah, like he does good fun dialogue and good fun action. And so that was good. And then yesterday we watched Doctor Strange. That’s better than I remember.
>> Kris Bryant: Yeah, it wasn’t my favorite.
>> Tara Scott: It wasn’t mine the first time either. But I wanted to watch it again because I wanted to watch the second Doctor Strange again. I remember liking the second one quite a bit because that’s. I think it’s Sam Raimi directed that one, but I didn’t really remember the first one. And on rewatching it, like it holds up actually pretty recently. And I wonder if it’s because there’s like a bunch of less good Marvel movies that have come out since then. And like, am I grading it on a curve? I don’t really know. I don’t know. Hard to say.
but I had a good time. And then I’ve been reading. I’m not quite done yet, but I’m nearly done. Claire Lydon released a novella called the Forever Match. So it’s a follow up to her book the Princess Match which was about, the princess in line to the crown with a professional footballer. And this follows from the bachelorette party to like, it has the. It covers their wedding and them getting married and it’s lovely. I’m really enjoying it. Very. It’s sweet, it’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s like, what else could you possibly want in a follow up novella? Perfect, right? I just don’t know. So, Kris, it’s that time. What is your official recommendation today?
>> Kris Bryant: So my official recommendation is a, like I mentioned earlier is a coming of age drama film from 2023 called Fairyland.
>> Kris Bryant: It is produced by Sofia Coppola.
>> Tara Scott: Oh, cool.
>> Kris Bryant: Right. This person, Andrew Durham, his first feature directorial debut.
>> Tara Scott: Okay. Has he done any others?
>> Kris Bryant: I don’t know. Since then? I don’t know.
>> Tara Scott: Oh, okay. Okay.
>> Kris Bryant: I know this was his first.
>> Tara Scott: His first and perhaps don’t ask me these his last question. Well, the way you said first it, I was like, oh. And then he went on to do which Oscar win?
>> Kris Bryant: I didn’t get that in depth. It is based on Alicia Ah. Abbott’s memoir, Fairyland. A memoir of my father. M. So here’s the synopsis. Shortly after the death of her mother in a car accident in 1973, Alicia Abbott and her gay father Steven moved to San Francisco where he can live openly. Like this is not explained at the beginning of the movie as you start it.
>> Tara Scott: No.
>> Kris Bryant: Steve’s bohemian lifestyle clashes with the expectations of Being a parent from both the outside world and Alicia herself, who occasionally wishes for less of the independence her father gives her, their bond and duty to each other are tested painful and sudden ways. Okay, so this is. She’s six when it’s. When this memoir starts, when this movie starts, she’s six and then it ends. I think she’s probably 22. She’s in college. She’s. She’s doing a study abroad program. You know, so at the very beginning, you know, he gets the phone call. That’s how the movie starts. He gets the phone call saying that his wife is dead. So there’s a funeral and his mother in law is Geena Davis. Shut up. Geena Davis movie I recognized her by her voice. Like, you see the back of her and her voice, I’m like, that’s Geena Davis. I knew nothing about who was in this movie. And I was like, yeah, this is great. It’s Gina Davis. And sure enough, it was. And so she’s like, hey, so it might be a good idea to leave Alicia here and we’ll take, we can raise her, she can play with her cousins, you know, she’ll have the lifestyle her mom had, you know that it’s just like the white picket fence and just the typical traditional family.
>> Kris Bryant: And the dad’s like, no, she’s my kid, my responsibility. And I’m like, yes, yes, this is what you want. You want that whole, the, the whole parent fight for your kid thing. So he’s like, it’s already got a place to stay in San Francisco. We’re gonna go.
>> Kris Bryant: So he and Alicia leave. They get in their little Volkswagen bug, little orange bug, you know, because it’s 1973, everybody had a bug. I think my dad had a yellow one.
>> Tara Scott: Oh, cool.
>> Kris Bryant: So they go, they make it to San Francisco and they get to the friend’s house and it’s like they get a bedroom, one bedroom in this small San Francisco apartment. M and there’s like three other roommates and one guy just sleeps on the couch. And then there’s a woman, maybe she’s Russian, I’m not quite sure. And then there’s a super gay guy, like flamboyant. And just like I loved him immediately. I was like, yes. Like, he is just so, good with her, with, with Alicia. So it’s just a different way, you know, it’s not really, you know, when you first see it, you’re like, you know, things were a little different back in the 70s, I get it. You know, Plus, I mean, looking back, I’d be like, that’d be cool for me. But no, you it great for a six year old. Probably not, not a great way. And then he wouldn’t put her in school. Oh yeah. So grandma’s like, you need to get her in school. Like it’s, you know, she needs to go to school. So he ends up getting her, into a French school, French speaking school. So I thought that was interesting. Like the whole time I’m watching this, like he want, he. The whole reason why he went to, to California was to write his book. He wanted to write a book. Like that’s the whole thing. He goes, I’m going to go to California to write this book. I don’t know how they’re making their money this whole time. Like I’m watching this movie I’m seeing. I’m not enjoying it for what it is. The whole time I’m worried about how they’re, are they going to get kicked out because it’s a small bedroom.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah.
>> Kris Bryant: And then eventually, you know, as they show, them getting older, you know, then they have their own place as a family. And then he started to annoy me because he would completely neglect her. He was living his best life.
He was going out on dates all the time. And she’s like, hey, how come, you know, you only date men? Like how can we do date women? And he’s like, well, I found the love of my life with your mom, so there’s no reason to date other women. You know, that was his explanation for being gay. You know, that was what he tells her. Because she’s like, okay, yeah, sure, great. So he doesn’t question it because she doesn’t know to not question it, but go deeper because she wanted to, she wanted more answers. And she doesn’t get those till much later in life. So it jumps ahead to words in the early 80s and they captured that really well. Like the hair point. Perfect. Just like the record store. And just like that whole. It was the right vibe. I loved it. I loved how they did that. But she’s kind of in the same boat. She’s still raising herself and her dad’s living his own life. And it’s just like very disjointed. Like she never knows if he’s going to be home. She learned to take care of herself from a very, very young age, whether she wanted to or not. Like, it’s like she was on survival at this point. You know, he would send her to school Unkempt, her hair not brushed. Her kids would, you know, the other kids would make kind of fun of her and, and it just wasn’t a good experience for her. So she kind of had the resentment towards him. And she didn’t like her friend. She didn’t tell her friends that her dad was gay. You know, her friends were always like making fun of gay people. And she never stood up and said anything, you know, because she was just embarrassed and she didn’t, you know, want to explain it to her friends, you know, that this was the lifestyle that she, and she didn’t want them to come over to her house. And her dad finally gets his book published when she’s a teenager. And it only took like 12 years, but he finally gets a book published. And it’s poetry, a book of poetry. So they have this book, like, what do you call it? You would think I would know. Jesus.
>> Tara Scott: Launch.
>> Kris Bryant: Book launch. Yeah. Book party. Book launch party, sure.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah.
>> Kris Bryant: And she doesn’t invite her friends. She’s just embarrassed of everything. So it’s just, it’s not good. I mean, she decides, hey, I’m going to go overseas. A grandma has agreed to pay for the airfare. So the grandma has stayed like, in her life, has like, I. Do you want to come back out here and live with us? You know, if you think you’re not getting a good enough education or whatever. And, and Alicia’s like, really smart and she’s gonna go, she’s getting scholarships and she’s gonna go overseas. so he reaches out to her.
Daddy reaches out and says, hey, I need you, I need your help. And he’s, she’s like, I don’t think I’m ready to like, take care of you. I don’t, I, I’m not ready to do anything like that. And he’s like, look, I wasn’t ready to be a father all by myself when you were 6, but I did it. So now it’s your turn.
>> Tara Scott: Interesting.
>> Kris Bryant: Yeah, I just thought that was kind of a weird.
>> Tara Scott: This guy who neglected her, right?
>> Kris Bryant: And she even said that when she was young, she’s like, you’re neglecting me. That’s kind of funny. But. And so when they get back together, they’re having, you know, heart to heart talks. And I just, I loved it. It was so honest. And she’s just like, look, you really. I, I felt abandoned. And he goes, I did it for your own good. And he goes, I wanted to raise you to be independent and learn things on your own. And she was thinking about it, she goes, that’s not bad. But also, she still has a lot of resentment towards him. And then as she’s going through the community, you know, running errands for him and things like that, she understands that he really was an important person to a lot of people. People are telling, oh, your dad’s great. He keeps us informed of all this stuff. So I do find out that he does write for a newspaper, a local newspaper, but I think it’s a free paper. So again, in my head I’m like, where’s all this money coming from? Especially San Francisco. I liked it because I really thought it was genuine. I felt like I could see myself as him and I could see myself as her and I could see myself reacting in both situations the same way they did. I mean, I really thought it was well thought out. I thought it was very well directed. You know how I am about the cinematography. Great, perfect. Everything was smooth. And it does explore life in the 70s and the early 80s in San Francisco.
It’s a little heavy. It is heavy. But also it was kind of interesting to go back in time and see that I, I thought they did a really good job.
>> Kris Bryant: And if you like stories about relationships with, mother, father, daughter, that kind of thing, I.
>> Tara Scott: Mean, I recommend like parent child stuff.
>> Kris Bryant: Parent child, yeah, parent child stuff. Especially when, you know, there’s a lot of things you want to say and, and you’re like, say it, you know, because it’s a lot easier when you’re screaming at the tv, just tell them or tell her and.
>> Kris Bryant: So I recommend that.
That is my official recommendation. What about you? What is your official recommendation?
>> Tara Scott: Okay, my official recommendation is a book that came out, I think it was, within the last few months and it’s called in what World? By Bridget Morrissey. So the two leads are Marlo Jenkins and Priscilla Covington French. They hated each other in high school. They were kind of like rivals. They were, they were both theater kids in high school. They were both like in all the plays, all the things. They’re now in their 30s. Marlo is still working in the theater department at her high school. And Priscilla Covington French actually goes by the stage name Cilla Cove. She’s on, you know, she was in a TV series, it was quite popular. She was nominated for an award. I can’t remember if it’s a Golden Globe or an Emmy. Their rivalry should be, you know, gone and they should really have nothing to do with each other. But they are connected by their mentor who is still there. This is his final year at the school and he is going to retire. His name is Dallas Winthrop and he’s just this like extremely fabulous gay teacher who was just like foundational to them. He would do things like when they were in high school they were both in Rent. Like he, he put on rent at their high school first of all and put them both in like male parts. So he would do like gender bent casting at this high school. And I’m trying to remember where the high school takes place. Oh, no, it’s like the kind of, it’s, it’s not, it’s not like in the south or anything like that but it’s like the kind of state where you wouldn’t necessarily expect in a town this small to have that kind of casting, I guess you could say. But then he goes missing.
>> Kris Bryant: Oh, oh.
>> Tara Scott: And he goes missing and it’s like a day or two before the final show that he’s putting on at the school and he had left some kind of a message for Priscilla so that she’s like I think I know where he is and they’re trying to find him. But like I said this is a multiverse romance. And so he has, it turns like he has built. This is the only thing is like the back cover copy doesn’t like the blurb doesn’t actually explain. He’s built a machine because he’s trying to get back to a particular time. And so they get in this machine, they’re trying to find him and they come across all these other versions of themselves and they hate each other but do they. And where does that come from? And where does you know all of that? And so it just. Here’s the thing, I read this a few weeks ago but it’s when I had to let marinate.
>> Kris Bryant: Okay.
>> Tara Scott: And it’s one that like I finished reading it and I was like that’s pretty good. And then I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I love that. Three friggin weeks and a part of me wishes I would have taken like a lot more notes. And so I’m gonna apologize to everybody. First of all, I didn’t take as many notes as I normally do because I walked away from it going that was pretty good. But now like three weeks later I’m like, I’m having a hard time getting into any other book. I’ve been reading fanfic because this book kind of wrecked me for a lot of other Books, because it did things that I just haven’t really seen before. And so, like, yeah, should I have taken more notes? Yes, but. And also, I feel like no, because I really want to not spoil things. So I’m gonna speak in extremely broad strokes because I think in some ways it might be for the best that I went in. Like, I’m gonna keep, back a lot of things that the blurb doesn’t say, because it just. There were all these little pops of like, oh, that’s cool. Oh, that’s cool. Oh, I like that. I think the thing that’s kind of important to know.
So he builds. He’s. He’s found a way to build a time machine, but also a multiverse thing. Because there is kind of that idea of, like, can you go forwards and backwards in time? Sure. Can you. Well, actually, I don’t know about forwards, but can you also go sideways into other realities? And so when they’re meeting different versions of themselves, sometimes it means, you know, seeing themselves when they’re younger, but sometimes it also means seeing themselves in. Well, what if. And that’s where I don’t want to give the scenarios, but, like, the whole multiverse thing is really real. Because if you say, like, okay, what are the different things that could happen? Like, if I look at. For example, if I look at my life right now. So I work, and Neil runs our household. Well, there’s a. There’s a version in the multiverse where I stay home and run the household and Neil works. Thankfully, that’s not the one that we live in, because I would be really, really, really bad at running out. And he’s amazing, and I’m grateful. So there’s this, like, we see them in all kinds of. Oh, man, this is so tough because I want to say what all of them are, because I’m. I’m really excited about some of them. And also, I don’t want to spoil shit. So because they go to all of these different realities, they get to see all these different outcomes that have happened at this point for themselves. And when that happens, they learn a lot about themselves and almost saying, like, well, what if I had gone down that path in life? And they also learned a lot of things about each other. We get to see what drove that rivalry in high school. And we also get to see them. In one case, I’m not going to say what it is, but I love. They kind of keep themselves hidden. So they see these versions of themselves, they keep themselves hidden, and they get to see this really. It’s like this truly pivotal moment that happened in high school. And so these kids don’t know that they’re there, but they watch it. And they each get to see it from the other person’s because they’re watching it from the outside. They just get so much more perspective on their lives. And so, you know, I went into this, I was just expecting a fun book. And it is, It’s a very fun book. But I think the reason that it really stands out for me, in addition to the novelty, is that it’s a very tender book. Like, I was surprised by how tender it ends up being because they have to rebuild. Well, they don’t have to, but they do. With all this information they take in, they really rebuild their conceptions of each other. And they also reconsider. Like, okay, this is what I thought I want out of life. Is it actually what I want? What do I want to be doing with my life? I can’t really say anything else without spoiling it. So unfortunately, I’m keeping this recommendation a lot shorter than usual because I’m too excited about it. So what I’m going to say is go read it. It’s called in what World? By Bridget Morrissey. And then come find me and talk to me about it. Because I’m really excited about this one. I don’t know, it’s just nice because, you know, we both know I read a lot of books. Yes, A lot, A lot of books. And so when a, book surprises
>> Kris Bryant: me, I love that.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah, it’s just one of the greatest joys in life, I think. And this was a book that really surprised me.
>> Kris Bryant: Nice.
>> Tara Scott: So, yeah.
>> Kris Bryant: Is it a long book? Is it a short book? I mean, you would think with different universes you have, it’s probably pretty long.
>> Tara Scott: Let’s see what Amazon says. Because here’s the thing that I’m going to find. I found that it went very quickly to read. Like I found the pacing was quite fast.
>> Kris Bryant: 146 pages.
>> Tara Scott: Yeah. So not bad, not huge.
>> Kris Bryant: That’s probably long. That’s a longer book, I think.
>> Kris Bryant: Like, usually mine came in at like 250 or so. So I mean. But then again, I write shorter books.
>> Tara Scott: It was a faster pace than what I usually read because I’m kind of used to things like looking at the percentage ticking by on my Kindle as I, as I read it. So I usually have a sense of, okay, we’re roughly this far. I would look down and say, I’m sorry, what? How did we jump 13% ahead since the last time I looked.
>> Kris Bryant: Yeah.
>> Tara Scott: So the pacing, like, it is there. It is fast, I would say, like it’s okay to start, but it gets great when they’re put back into each other’s proximity because they’re not in touch over the years. Like they weren’t friends or anything like that. They were rivals.
>> Kris Bryant: They. Right. Why would you talk to your rival?
>> Tara Scott: Yeah. right. And like Priscilla left town, went to Hollywood, didn’t want, you know, didn’t really stay in touch with people locally other than Dallas. So, yeah, it’s just, it’s great, it’s fun. And there’s a scene I want to talk about and I can’t. I can’t. I can’t, I can’t talk about it. I can’t.
Look at how restrained I’m being, Kris Bryant. Look at how. Look. Look at this restrained.
>> Kris Bryant: Bravo. Bravo. Good job. Thank you.
>> Tara Scott: Thank you. All right, that’s all for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. If you have a friend that you think would be interested in any of the books or shows or anything that we talked about today, please let them know about it. You could send them the link or tell them to look for Queerly Recommended on their podcast Catcher. And if you want to support us, we also have a link in our show Notes to our Ko Fi.