My experience with clothing is not other people's.

First of all, apparently, having friends/family who sew is non-typical. I mention this because a student asked my opinion on what they were quoted to get a suit tailored. They were quoted $300 and I was all "Oh, yeah, seems legit." It was several sizes too big, and is a suit, so there's lots of internal altering that needs doing, and $300 is like, 1-2 hours of work, which means the tailor knows their shit.

That was... not what the student thought I was gonna say? But, like? GOOD suits (not great suits) can start at $3k from fabric pick to completion.

Weird, uncomfy moment.

So, like, I've not actually been involved in watching a TV show that I like enough to even vaguely poke at the fandom of since, like. Maybe 2013?

Have I watched tv shows or big fandom darlings since then? Sure? I guess?

But I've not actually 1. watched a tv show 2. enjoyed said tv show 3. mentally engaged with art about said tv show AND 4. wanted to talk about said tv show since roughly that time period.

Cue my surprise that My Hero Academia kind of slow-rolled me into that head space AND THEN @ponyregrets accidentally got me interested in trying out 9-1-1 (The show where Angela Bassett gets a bag and makes out with Peter Krause). FYI, that's 100% the name of the show in my head.

Like, I did my time in the Public Services tv spaces for a lot of my life. I've watched the entirety of Law and Order multiple times, including a good chunk of the spin offs. I watched JAG and the first few seasons of NCIS. Hell, I watched Touched By An Angel as a youngster (and any tv show that does weird Christian propaganda is gonna get lumped in with that show and bless you, 9-1-1 (TSWABGABAMOWPK), you fall into that category).

But IDK! Its kind of unexpectedly subversive and not just in ways Ryan Murphy joints tend to be? Like, it's almost 47% less weird and creepy in gross ways than I usually expect? It's fun and stupid and things go splodey and all the main characters are written to actually like each other, and all of the background actors are just casually not white and not stick thin. Plus, pretty much everyone's queer or from Minnesota and I genuinely enjoy the weird, insane Situations the calls put everyone in. Each episode is more often a series of vignettes than an actual through plotline and I kinda miss that about modern tv?

Also, I'm passively amused that the two dudes everyone on the internet want to fuck are actually written in a way where that's not just people queerbaiting themselves* into believing it's a plotline?

It's pretty neat!

Is it high art? No. Neither are any of the other properties I mentioned (and enjoyed!) above! But honestly? I'm having a nice time! Though, I am deeply confused why this series only has two seasons (1 and 7) of physical media releases and even my MVP's in Malaysia don't have the rest on DVD. But all the Lonestar seasons are everywhere? (We don't have time to talk about how my irrational hatred of Rob Lowe outweighs my adoration for Gina Torres, but that was a journey I went on with myself, so you're welcome.)

*Like, I have a whole lot to say about people who get petulant and shitty when they like X and Y character together and if said characters who are a.) not written in a narrative way where that will ever make sense without a whole lot of character growth or assassination and b.) are written to actively not like each other as people because of fundamental value differences don't get together onscreen/in the source. IDK, I'm old, so I remember when we (as fans) were all shocked when het couples got together onscreen. I mean, the term 'shipper' comes out of people labeling themselves as people who enjoyed what they perceived as romantic tension between Mulder and Scully and that the wider X-Files fandom thought they were delusional for interpreting as romantic. And I still fucking say Mulder's ace. Fight me.

Huh.

I am mildly grumpy that the full deck of Chicago Public Services shows are not even mildly interesting to me. There's like three of them and they've all be running for years. Hell, there is a 93% chance I've accidentally been in the background for MULTIPLE of them (they shoot in the Illinois Medical District all the time), AND S. Epatha Merkerson is in ONE of them!

But, nah. I did my Law and Order time.

Huh.

I always forget my dad did a bunch of really impressive shit when he was younger? Like, my experience of him was weird 80's machismo cowboy federal government agent shit - but like boring - leading into beekeeper!environmentalist!community action!socks and sandals! guy.

But, like, he was a pilot for the Navy and flew everything from an Osprey to an F-16, legitimately gathered weather data while flying through hurricanes, and spent a couple seasons smoke jumping? Like, I knew all that shit (it's probably weird I knew so much about in-production planes during the late 80's and early 90's, now that I think about it) but I was 8, and when you're 8, it's cooler that your dad makes biscuits and gravy on Saturday mornings.

Found an Endeavor fancast!

For reasons, I've been watching Silent Witness on BritBox and I realized that David Caves? Fantastic physical representation of what Todoroki Enji would look like in person. Dude's built like a brick shit house, has That Nose, and even has a tan jacket that he wears around outside.

Hilariously, his costar on SW (while female) has the same proportions as Hawks, so watching them wander around is intensely hilarious.

*quietly stares into middle distance imagining a The Civil Wars version of TSwift & Bon Iver's Exile*

Theater/Convention Space/Sports Venue name changes.

I just read an article where a location was mentioned in Chicago and went "...whereTF is that?" Like, I would really appreciate if whomst ever buys event spaces stops fucking renaming them because I don't know what you're talking about.

It took me close to fifteen years to remember that Rosemont Horizon is now called the Allstate Arena and I twelve seconds ago found out that the former New World Music Theatre/Tweeter Center is now named after my credit union. FFS.

Reading: 2025.

ANYWAY, so my brain has been a squirrelly little monster for the last chunk of time, and I haven't really wanted to sit and read anything other than trashy fanfic that directly addresses my own personal damage in delightfully stupid ways. Which? Absolutely valid.

HOWEVER, one of my two vague reading goals for the year involved 1. Reading at least 30 published books and 2. Trying to tackle my 'currently owned' pile and do a read it or unhaul it thing. (Note: these are vague goals and if I don't fulfill them, eh.)

Both of those goals involve actually reading physical or electronic books that I have on-hand in whatever format. SO. I am doing my best to do some low key work on those. It is, after all, nearing the end of January and I have read only one book so far. And it's one that is very much where my brain is because of my moderate list of special interests, Hollywood history is a returning fave.

Add in that Karina Longworth started the new season of You Must Remember This, and all the sparkly lights in my brain went "OOO!!!"

As such, I am currently about halfway through her book, Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood. I am listening to the audiobook as I am so used to Longworth's audio presenter style that it feels incredibly wrong to try and read a print book by her. Some of it is a retread of a couple podcast subjects from the The Many Loves of Howard Hughes season, but there's a lot of new and expanded information. Additionally, this is very much a biography of Hughes, but as framed around his relationships with women and centering their experiences over his. It's definitely worth a read/listen but if you're a longtime YMRT podcast listener, consider where your brain is.

THAT SAID, the first book I actually finished this year is The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage by Nick de Semlyen.