The Unicorn Hunt: Goin' Solo



So, you may have already noticed by the new intro and the video-diary style of introduction, that this season of The Unicorn Hunt, I'm going it solo. But just because it's not Kelsey and I as a team, doesn't mean this season is lacking friends.

In this episode, when Kelsey is busy planning her wedding, I turn to my other friends to see if they'd like to go looking for unicorns, but they're busy, too. It's like everyone has lives without me, and doesn't think finding unicorns is important... How odd.

Catch up on the series on YouTube, and follow the Tumblr for fun unicorn stuff everyday!

In the Movies Ep. 9: Juliana's Birthday!

in

Happy Belated Birthday Juliana! We're back from an unintentional hiatus with a special episode all about Juliana's favorite movies! We are impressively comprehensive considering we were drunk at 2am while recording this. Yup, that's right, this is officially our first drunk episode. If you've ever wondered what Juliana's top ten movies are, you've come to the right podcast.

If you've come here from the podcast, then here are those handy dandy links to all the movies we talked about, so you can check them out for yourself!

2001: A Space Odyssey

Trainspotting

Rebel Without a Cause

Wait Until Dark

Sunshine

Tonight You're Mine

FernGully: The Last Rainforest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Kill Bill Vol. 1

/

Vol. 2

Cabin in the Woods

Listen on

iTunes

,

Podbean

, or stay right here with the player below! Let us know what you think about this episode, suggest future episodes, or just say hi by emailing us at

inthemoviespodcast@gmail.com

.

The Doctor's Companions Ep 14: Judoon Platoon Upon the Moon

in

This week, we get introduced to the best companion ever, Donna, and the worst, Martha. I reveal myself to be a little too interested in the Empress of the Racnoss, while Juliana reveals her three-point reason for disliking Martha. Linda, as usual, remains fairly neutral in most matters while Juliana and I Martha-rant. We all love the Judoon platoon upon the moon and wish that our pockets were also bigger on the 

inside.

Take a listen to find out which Doctor Who alien species we'd each like to be and hear us discuss when/how Juliana will finally get to hear The Doctor say her name. (He's already met a Linda, and now Martha's sister Tish.)

Listen on

iTunes

,

Podbean

, or right here using the player below! Don't forget to answer this week's question by emailing us at

doctorscompanionspodcast@gmail.com

!

The Doctor's Companions Ep. 13: *Sobbing*

in

This week, we just bawl our eyes out for an hour. Just kidding. Juliana does tear up a bit, though. But, first we go on a bit of tangent wherein I proclaim my desire for fan art from our existent fans, point out that I left my window open so we might hear some outdoor noises like the scary knife sharpening truck that patrols my neighbourhood, and then a breeze from the window blows a plastic bag down which scares the crap out of Juliana and Linda (apologies if that bursts your ear drums or scares your neighbour).

But, back to the show; we answer this week's question of which two baddies we'd like to see battle, and I poke holes in the science of the whole situation (to avoid my feelings?) before admitting the final scene made my eyes leak.

The next day, as I was editing the two episodes we recorded, I took it upon myself to make us some fan art of each of us with our favorite Doctor. So convenient that we each have a different favorite.

Listen on

iTunes

,

Podbean

, or right here using the player below! Don't forget to answer this week's question (or submit fan art!) by emailing us at

doctorscompanionspodcast@gmail.com

!

The Doctor's Companions Ep. 12: L.I.N.D.A. and Chloe

in

This week contains two subpar, not-enough-Doctor-and-Rose episodes, so the highlight for us was showing each other our drawings of our baddies. Our question to answer this week was actually to design a Doctor Who baddie. Juliana and I were both coincidentally inspired by marine life, so we decided they would be from the same planet. Linda went a different direction, describing a man-made baddie, an assisted suicide machine rising up against us.

Angie the Alien of the Craw Family and the species Triskaidekacephalopoda of the planet Amphibiopia

This week's question for you to answer is: Which Doctor Who alien species would you like to be? 

Listen on

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,

Podbean

, or right here using the player below! Don't forget to answer this week's question by emailing us at

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!

The Unicorn Hunt // Movie Reviews



It's slim pickings for unicorn movies out there. This isn't a 'best of unicorn movies' list, it's a 'these are the only unicorn movies' list. And, sadly, most of them suck. However, there are a few decent movies that feature just a little bit of unicorn.

Last season of The Unicorn Hunt was five episodes and three DIY videos. This season, I decided to do review videos instead of DIYs. I will also be reviewing some unicorn books and unicorn iPhone apps, so if you have any recommendations, let me know in the comments!

Go have fun watching some terrible unicorn movies! And stay tuned for more unicorn adventures!

The Doctor's Companions Ep. 11: The Bitter Pill

in

Despite the numerous scientific inaccuracies with these episodes, this is one of my favorite stories. We so rarely get philosophical on Doctor Who, it's so interesting to see how The Doctor handles stuff like this. We bust some science myths and discuss the meaning behind the satanic creature.

Who News

Drink Like a Local: TARDIS Edition [

Geek

& Sundry]

Making of Guess Who: Doctor Who Edition [

Karen Kavett

]

My Doctor Guess Who:

Don't forget to send us your answers to this week's question; Which two baddies would you like to see battle each other? Bonus points if you draw it for us!

Listen on

iTunes

,

Podbean

, or right here using the player below! Don't forget to answer this week's question by emailing us at

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!

The Doctor's Companions Ep. 10: Cybermen

in

The Cybermen have arrived! In a parallel universe, so, like, who cares? We have a lot of fun this episode answering this episode's question what we would want to see different in a parallel world and talking about Jackie's cleavage, Ricky's scrunched up face, how Apple would have designed sleeker cyber ear pods, Mickey's journey, and practicing our Cybermen voices. The corresponding episode of Doctor Who Confidential was about the history of the Cybermen. Their first iteration had terrifying ski masks and the weirdest speech pattern, which we try to replicate ourselves. Have a look below at their designs over the years.

Who News

Season 9 Trailer [

BBC America

]

Trailer Breakdown [

Den of Geek

]

ComicCon Panel [

BBC America

]

Our question we want you to answer for episode 12 of the podcast is inspired by the episode "Love & Monsters" which features a monster created by a 9-year-old boy who won a contest. We want you to create your own baddie for Doctor Who! Don't just describe it, send us a picture!

Listen on

iTunes

,

Podbean

, or right here using the player below! Don't forget to answer this week's question by emailing us at

doctorscompanionspodcast@gmail.com

!

In the Movies Ep. 8: Interstellar Science

in

We talk about Interstellar and science fiction vs. science fact. Juliana enjoyed the movie, but I am full of questions. A lot of those questions go with our discussion about what in science fiction is actually scientific fact. After we dissect the movie, leaving me only slightly less confused, we do a quick run-down of some of the best and worst science in sci-fi movies and why.

Movie News

Live-action Prince Charming [

Hello Giggles

]

Live-action Aladdin prequel [

Hollywood Reporter

]

Live-action Sword in the Stone [

Hollywood Reporter

]

Bill Nye documentary [

Kickstarter

]

Listen on

iTunes

,

Podbean

, or stay right here with the player below! Let us know what you think about this episode, suggest future episodes, or just say hi by emailing us at

inthemoviespodcast@gmail.com

.

The Doctor's Companions Ep. 9: Highs and Lows

in

This week we go out of order to talk about one of the highest-rated episodes of Doctor Who and one of the lowest-rated. We put episode 4 with episode 7 of this season, to avoid any three-part podcast episodes and keep all these two-part stories together. (There are three two-parters this season!)

Despite being one of the highest-rated by fans, Juliana and I have major issues with "The Girl in the Fireplace".

How could he leave Rose and the TARDIS for that woman?!

 Despite being a good episode and story aside from that, we just cannot ignore the fact that his decision is so out of character! I did some research on this Madame de Pompadour and she's not even historically or personally interesting or impressive, so I cannot wrap my head around his fascination with her. Linda doesn't have a problem with it, but I think I probably didn't much on my first viewing either. I think it came after rewatching the whole series enough that I knew The Doctor well enough to see how out of character that is for him. 

After Juliana and I get through our ranting, we quickly get through one of our least favorite episodes, "The Idiot's Landern". Aside from Rose and The Doctor looking adorable in their 50's outfits, we all greatly dislike this episode. The baddie is lame and unexplained and we're just plain bored.

Who News and Fun Stuff

Doctor Puppet [

Nerdist

]

Possibility of River Song returning [

The Telegraph

]

Possibility of Captain Jack returning [

Den of Geek!

]

Female Doctor considered in 1986 [

Den of Geek!

]

Moffat on the Time War [

Den of Geek!

]

Nick Briggs on Christopher Eccleston [

Tumblr

]

Listen on

iTunes

,

Podbean

, or right here using the player below! Don't forget to answer this week's question by emailing us at

doctorscompanionspodcast@gmail.com

!

The Unicorn Hunt is Back!


The Unicorn Hunt is back! I'm super excited, are you? If you don't know what The Unicorn Hunt is, hurry on over to the YouTube channel to watch what I'm calling Season 1 to catch up! It's my web series I started in October 2013. It all started with seeing Unicorn Poop Cookies on Pinterest or somewhere, which gave me the idea for the first episode. I was going to do just that one short sketch, but then I kept getting more and more unicorn clue ideas. I somehow convinced my BFF Kelsey to be in the videos with me, and we set out on The Unicorn Hunt! 

I was a little more ambitious writing these new episodes, including more people other than Kelsey. I decided to change up the format for this season, making Tish go solo, which means less Tish & Kelsey adventures, and more Tish & someone new adventures. Now, each episode starts with a video diary style introduction to the adventure. And, instead of DIY videos between episodes, I'm doing reviews of unicorn movies, books, etc.

I'm excited to be back into the unicorn mindset, and the consistent video-making mindset. I plan to keep up the same schedule as last season, a new video every other Wednesday, while also producing content for Tish.TV, my Doctor Who podcast & movies podcast, and this blog. Phew! I love to keep busy! 

Enjoy the first episode of Season 2 (aka Ep. 6), subscribe to the channel to keep up with my unicorn adventures, follow The Unicorn Hunt Tumblr for daily unicorn posts and find #TheUnicornHunt on social media for updates!




The Doctor's Companions Ep. 8: Canine and K9

in

We continue into season 2 and The Doctor and Rose are adorable as ever! We love sassy Queen Victoria, but have some issues with the werewolf-moonlight explanation. And then we completely ignore the oily aliens using children as computers to focus on "the missus and the ex", Rose and Sarah Jane. 

Who News

Shia LaBeouf as The Doctor [

Brandon Bird

]

Returning in Season 9, Joivan Wade as Rigsy [

International Business Times

]

Also returning, Ingrid Oliver as Osgood (

We said Osbourne- Oops!

) and Michelle Gomez as Missy [

The Telegraph

]

Listen on

iTunes

,

Podbean

, or right here using the player below! Don't forget to answer this week's question by emailing us at

doctorscompanionspodcast@gmail.com

!

In the Movies... Ep. 7: Is It the End of Film?



Juliana and I were excited to talk about our first documentary on the podcast. This is a movie I saw last year that I put on my list of podcast ideas because it was itself a discussion on a movie industry topic. The film, through interviews with filmmakers, asks the question "Is it the end of film?" I suggested the movie and topic to Juliana, unsure if she would be interested in delving deep into this aspect of the film industry. Fortunately, the doc explains the technical side of film & digital in a very clear, simple way that anyone can understand. Anyone interested in understanding a bit more about how movies are made will find this perspective interesting.

I also wanted to ask the question "Is awareness of the movie industry ruining the magic of movies?" We both love behind-the-scenes stuff, but is there a limit? We talk about seeing the same few Hollywood actors in every movie, Marvel's 20-year plan, and the lost magic of seeing a movie in a theatre.

 Movie News We Talked About
Pitch Perfect 3 [Vulture]
Maleficent Sequel [Deadline]
Lucy and Colombiana sequels [Vulture]
Ghostbusters Set Photos [Hello Giggles]
Ghostbusters Chris Hemsworth cast [Vulture]
Rose McGowan calls out Hollywood sexism [Business Insider]

 We Didn't Talk About
Martin sheen cast in Anne of green gables TV movie [CTV News]
Christopher Lee died at age 93 [Daily Mail]
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [Nerdist News]
Tom Holland will be Spider-Man [LA Times]
More Black Widow Merch is Coming [MoviePilot]
Mark Ruffalo on the "I am not a feminist" internet movement. [Tumblr]
Looking for Alaska has a female director [Hello Giggles]

Fun Movie Stuff
Where are the Women? (A Sort of Supercharged Bechdel Test) [Tumblr]
The Furiosa test [Tumblr] 
When there are enough women [Tumblr] 
Dustin Hoffman on Tootsie [Tumblr] 
If men were treated like women in Hollywood [Tumblr]  
Add 'ing' to movie titles [Tumblr]

Listen on iTunes, Podbean, or stay right here with the player below! Let us know what you think about Side by Side, digital vs film, answer our question, suggest future episodes, or just say hi by emailing us at inthemoviespodcast@gmail.com.

The Doctor's Companions Ep. 7: The Dawn of Tennant

in

Season 2 begins! Juliana and I are so excited to have the tenth Doctor, however Linda holds a soft spot for Nine. The season starts off strong with a great episode that really shows why Doctor Who is such a great show. It's a big mysterious adventure, it's hilarious, The Doctor gets serious when necessary, and there are allusions to upcoming big story arcs.

In Who News this episode, I talked about a really cool Doctor Who cookbook. I realized after recording I forgot to even mention the name of the book! It's

Dining with the Doctor: Regenerated

. Check out the (finished)

Kickstarter campaign

for more info, or check out the first edition available on

Amazon

.

Be sure to send us your answer to our question for Ep. 9 (S02E04 & S02E07): What historical figure would you want to go back and meet?

Listen on

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,

Podbean

, or right here using the player below! Don't forget to answer this week's question by emailing us at

doctorscompanionspodcast@gmail.com

!

In the Movies... Ep. 6: Special! Movie News



It's our first special episode! We broke from our usual format to bring you an episode jam packed with movie news. The idea for these occasional special episodes is to focus on one director, writer, or actor's work for an entire episode. However, when trying to decide what to do for our first special episode, I suggested we dedicate it to catching up on all the movie industry news that we've been saving up. We always have a few news items for the beginning of each podcast, but the past month we've been building up quite a lengthy list of items to talk about on the podcast. So many of them were related to our episode 3 subject, women in film, and gender inequality in the industry that we didn't want to leave anything out. So, consider this episode a movie news catch-up session.

I've included links to everything we talked about, but hopefully you will also give the podcast a listen because we're not just spewing out news, we are talking about it. Expect a regular episode next time, and a special episode about every 6 episodes.

Here is the extensive list of movie news items we talked about.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (CinemaBlend)
Joss Whedon on Ant-Man’s original script (Variety)
Suicide Squad (Nerdist News)
Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange (Vulture)
Fox Is Rebooting The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vulture)
Channing Tatum: Gambit Will Be an Unconventional Origin Story (Vulture)
Now You See Me will be a trilogy (Vulture)
Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, and Paul Feig comedy (Hollywood Reporter)
Sofia Coppola no longer directing The Little Mermaid (Deadline)
Live-Action Fantasia & others (Variety)
Beauty and the Beast Cast (Metro)
The Jungle Book (Daily Mail)
Mulan (Hollywood Reporter)
Dumbo (Hollywood Reporter)
Winnie the Pooh (Variety)
Tinkerbell (Vulture)

What is a 'feminist' movie anyway? (ScreenRant)
Tom Hardy vs Dumb Journalist (Tumblr)

Salma Hayek (IndieWire)
Anna Kendrick (Glamour)
Indianna Jones (Red Nose Day)
Shit People Say to Women in Film (Tumblr)
Inquiry Into Hollywood’s Hiring Practices (NY Times)

Geena Davis, Bentonville Film Festival (HelloGiggles)
Rose Byrne launches The Dollhouse Collective (DailyMail)
Lifetime- Broad Focus (TheWrap)

Melissa McCarthy (TheEllenShow)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (TheWrap)
Age Gap on Screen (TheGuardian)

Matt McGorry is a feminist. (Huffington Post)
His essay for National Equal Pay Day (Facebook)
No flats at Cannes (Ottawa Citizen)
Lack of Black Widow merchandise (Mashable) (BuzzFeed)
Cecily Strong Hosts White House Correspondents Dinner (YouTube) (HollywoodLife)


Listen on iTunes, Podbean, or stay right here with the player below! Let us know what you think about all this movie news and gender inequality in the industry, suggest future episodes, or just say hi by emailing us at inthemoviespodcast@gmail.com. 

The Doctor's Companions Ep. 6: Goodbye, Nine!

in

We're back with hopefully our last three-episode episode. The series is much more agreeable from now on about keeping its two-part stories within our two-at-a-time podcast schedule. These three episodes include one of our least favorite aliens, naked Jack, and the first regeneration. Juliana and I are very excited to get into the age of Tennant, while Linda prefers Eccleston.

Who News

Doctor Who Theme - Player Piano (

YouTube

)

Could Doctor Who series 9 be entirely two-parters? (

RadioTimes

)

This episode, we answered the question: What’s your favorite two-part story? Linda, having only watched 3 seasons so far, chose a story from season 1. Juliana and I were torn between many good choices, but settled on stories from season 4 and season 5.

The question asked, to be answered in episode 8, was: What’s your favorite thing in this new series that they’ve brought from the old series? The Daleks, Cybermen, The Master, the sonic screwdriver, Sarah Jane, U.N.I.T.? This series has brought a lot from the old series into the 21st century. 

Listen on 

iTunes

, 

Podbean

, or right here using the player below! Don't forget to answer this week's question by emailing us at 

doctorscompanionspodcast@gmail.com

!

April & May Round Up: TableTop Day, Podcasts, and ComicCon

I enjoyed a lot of bike rides and chill time outdoors.
Movies
Much Ado About Nothing (Live at Wyndham's Theatre, London in September 2011) - Before we recorded our Much Ado About Nothing & Shakespeare episode of In the Movies, Juliana and I watched our faves David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado on stage. It is hilarious. I highly recommend finding a copy of the recording (Don't ask me how I got one *cough*imapirate*cough*). I love Whedon's Much Ado movie, but I think I might like this version even more. For its comedy, at least.
Wolf Children & A Letter to Momo - I recommend these to any Studio Ghilbli fans, as they have a similar story structure and animation style. Both beautiful to look at and beautiful stories.
The Inbetweeners 2 - Full of horrible, raunchy comedy that isn't really my style, but I loved the show and the first movie, so I was looking forward to the second movie. Not as good, but provided some laughs.
Avengers: Age of Ultron - Duh, I'm a Marvel movie fan, so of course I splurged and saw this in theatres. Duh, it's amazing. There's a lot going on in it, though, I was wishing it could just be like 5 hours long so I could get more complete stories of all the plots and new characters.
Pitch Perfect 2 - I was lucky enough to get advance screening tickets for this, and while not as great as the first, it has all the same elements that you loved from the first (Anna Kendrick's awkward comedy, girl power, and tons of epic mash-ups).
Rewatched: Pitch Perfect, Twilight Saga 1-5, Neverwas, The Secret of Moonacre, The Golden Compass, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, 9, The Fountain, Maleficent, Oz the Great and Powerful, Malice in Wonderland

TV 
The Grace Helbig Show - So exciting that my favorite YouTuber/personal hero/role model/inspiration got her own late night talk show! It is so different from anything I've seen on TV. It perfectly blends TV format with interactive Internet format and big celebrities with Internet personalities. Grace truly is the awkward big sister we all need in our lives, and I hope you will all check out her show!


Caught Up On: Parks & Recreation, Parenthood, Grey’s Anatomy, Elementary, Castle, The Mindy Project, Lost Girl, Girls, New Girl

YouTube 
Just Between Us - Comedians and nest friends, Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin, who you may recognize from BuzzFeed videos, created a hilarious relationships advice show. I love their clashing personalities and their individual styles of comedy. 
HeyUSA - Season 2! This season, Mamrie travelled around the country with a bunch of different YouTubers. I could watch Mamrie do literally anything and be completely amused.
Good Mythical Morning - I knew the names Rhett & Link for a long time without actually seeing what they do. I had no idea they've been doing this daily show for so long. 
BuzzFeed Violet - BuzzFeed has so many different YouTube channels for all their videos, for some reason. I'm still not sure what the defining characteristics are of each channel, but after watching videos on just about all of them, I only subscribed to Violet, because it seemed to have the most that I enjoyed.
Drunk Driving with Brad Gage - Before you get mad- He's not driving drunk, he's driving drunk people home. He picks up drunk comedian friends and has hilarious conversations as he drives them home.
The Hey Hey Show - Rhett & Link created a second show, similar to their format, hosted by two female comedians. They recently changed their format to do sketches and vlogs and I really love it.

Books 
The Twilight Saga - I haven't read the books since I first read them right after I saw the first movie. I didn't love them as much this time, but it was also nice to go back into that world after so long. I got a little annoyed at the long conversations Bella and Edward have about who loves each other more, but I love reading the vampires individual histories and what it's like when Bella becomes a vampire. I bought the beautiful "White Collection" and it included The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: And Eclipse Novella, which I have yet to read.

Music 
Kat Dahlia (My Garden)
Sia - California Dreamin'
Walk Off the Earth - Sing It All Away, Home We Go, Boomerang (Sing It All Away)
Meghan Trainor (Title)
Fall Out Boy (American Beauty/American Psycho)
Alabama Shakes (Sound and Color)
Violents (Absentee, Red Lights, Two Animals)
Futuresoul - Oblivion
Chloe Howl - Bad Dream
Panic! At the Disco - Hallelujah
Sam and the Womp - Bom Bom

Games 
The past two months were full of opportunities to play new games! On International TableTop Day, we played Tokaido, Takenoko, and Carcassonne. In our TableTop Day promo kit, we got Dead Man's Draw and Batman Love Letter. Because we got TableTop promo cards for Fluxx, a game I've been wanting, I got Fluxx and another quick game, Zombie Dice. We got out some oldies but goodies like Rummy-O, MasterMind, and Global Pursuit. At Kelsey's birthday party at The Loft, a board game bar, we played Wits & Wagers, Ugg-tect, and Superfight! I went with my friend to a game night at our hometown game store and played DungeonQuest, Jaipur, and Vampires of the Night, which is a kids game, but we're in love with it because it uses magnets!

Videos 
Podcasts 
Both of my podcasts finally launched in April! We've been having so much fun doing them. It's so fun just sitting down with friends and talking about stuff we're so excited about. It's been a learning process including technical difficulties and changes to the formats. I've been enjoying making my notes and doing research. I even love doing all the organizing and formatting to keep things running smoothly. I think we're starting to hit our sweet spot with both of them, but I love that it will always being something new and different each time we sit down to record.

Fun Times 
International TableTop Day
Our TableTop Day contest video won second place!!! I was sooooo excited to win and soooo excited to receive our prize- a TableTop Day promo kit full of games and exclusive TableTop promo pieces for games.
TableTop Day itself wasn't quite so exciting. Two of our group of five couldn't make it, so it was just three of us there, but we dressed up in our TableTop Day outfits, and went to the event. We played three new games, and even played one with some other people at the event. I even made Cookies of Catan to put out for everyone to enjoy.

After the event, I watched the rest of the TableTop Day live event on Geek & Sundry's Twitch channel. I got really excited when they played some of the contest videos during a break. I didn't see ours, so I wondered if they had played it earlier in the day. Thankfully, they rebroadcast it all the next day, and I sat on the edge of my bed with my phone ready to record, waiting for our video to be played... And it did! I was shaking with excitement at the idea of my face being on Geek & Sundry! I just wish I had been home to see it live, to see what people said in the chat. I did get to see what the people watching the rebroadcast said, and answered them back. So exciting.

Not so exciting was a few days later when FedEx showed up with our prize, and I saw that not only was the box way too small to fit all the games I thought we were getting, but I had to pay $50 for customs/taxes/duty/whatever! I was so disappointed that I had to pay for something I won, and that the promo kit was not all I thought it would be. We did get a few small games that we've played and love, but we decided I should list most of the other stuff on eBay to make back my $50, since they are pieces for games none of us have. (So, if you want any exclusive TableTop Day promo pieces, let me know!)

Ottawa ComicCon 
My (and Kim's and Juliana's) very first ComicCon was great! I had been planning on doing a really good Ariel cosplay of her blue dress outfit, but the date just really snuck up on me and with only a couple weeks to go I realized I did not have the time or money to get everything I would need. So, I decided to go with something easier- the outfit I made for my Cupcakes & Cocktails Ariel costume. 

It was a long day but we had so much fun. We got there just in time for the Wil Wheaton Q&A, then walked around the floor to check things out and found The Doctor Who Society of Canada booth where we got a bunch of pictures with the TARDIS, character cut-outs, and some Daleks. We went to a panel about making short films and one about podcasting. We all agreed they were useless, the men leading them told me nothing I didn't already know about how to make films on the cheap and how to promote your internet stuff with social media. We also went to the Sean Maher Q&A, and just walked the floor a lot and also took some breaks outside and in the halls while waiting for our next thing. Seeing amazing cosplays walk by was a highlight as well. Overall, it was just a fun, exciting day. Definitely a great first ComicCon experience. I think it will depend who the guests are next year, if I want to spend that much money again, though.

Kelsey's Birthday
Lately, my best friend Kelsey has been really into taxidermy and collecting bones. She lets me surprise her with her birthday cake every year because I always make something she loves, so this year I wanted to give her a skull and some bones. The cake was surprisingly easy to make, which is good for me because I don't like making elaborate cakes at home (so much clean up). However, I think it makes a big impact. Kelsey loved it and said I did a good job making it fairly accurate to a real bird skull.

Dandelion Festival
I love going back to my hometown (which I don't live far from, and a couple of my friends still live in) for events like the Dandelion Festival and Canada Day. There's not much to the festival, but we had a nice day walking around seeing the street performers, vendor booths, and then got some food and had a picnic in the park and played ladder ball. Just a good small town spring day.

Links & Likes
Amy Schumer - I've loved seeing her sketches being all over the Internet. She's so funny because she just throws the truth in your face, unapologetically. I particularly loved Last Fuckable Day and Girl, You Don't Need Make-Up.

Felicia Day's Where I Write - I love Felicia, and seeing her office definitely inspired me to create a workspace I love and get some shit done. My favorite part, though, was seeing what she had set up for making videos. I'm definitely going to make those sound-absorbing room dividers someday.

Shit People Say to Women Directors - The posts are so infuriating to read, why do I love it so much? I guess because despite all the horrible things men have done and said to these women, they are no less determined to get shit done and conquer their industry!

In the Movies... Ep.5: Maleficent & Disney Villains


I think this is my favorite episode so far! I could talk about fairy tales all day. Maleficent is a great example of how to take a fairy tale and retell the story in a new way. Juliana and I both loved Maleficent and the themes of rape, revenge, true love, and ambition. I mean, no one loves rape, but we thought the rape metaphor of Stefan taking her wings was very powerful. Angelina Jolie's performance made that scene in particular, and the whole movie, very powerful and made you deeply connect with the character.

We also had a fun discussion about other Disney villains that we would want to see get their own movies (Ursula! Ursula!). We even got a little carried away basically writing the scripts for some of our ideas. We guessed at what would lead these characters to the time in their life that they are doing evil things. After seeing that Maleficent was acting out of revenge, we suggest traumas that other characters might have gone through to lead them on their dark paths. And then there are some that are just greedy assholes.

In movie news, we mentioned The Make it Fair Project. This is the amazing, deeply sarcastic, video that we talked about.


It seems we're changing something about our format with every episode, so sorry if you don't like change, but we're learning as we go. With each episode, we learn what works and what doesn't, and we get new ideas for how to best talk about these movies and topics.
We started with giving each movie a pass or fail for the Bechdel test. Then, we added a Female Crew tally. Before this episode, I had the idea to expand the Bechdel test from beyond just pass or fail, because so often we say a movie "technically" passed, but we're still not satisfied with how women were represented in the movie. I thought giving a grade of Bechdel test would be more true to the idea. (ie. B is pass, below would not pass all three parts, above would be healthy representation) But just before we recorded the episode, I found this post on Tumblr that listed several more "tests" that people have created that measure female representation in movies. So, from now on we will be giving movies a grade for Female Representation, taking into account factors mentioned in these tests, and just our personal opinion of how we, as women, feel represented.

two or more [named] women talking to each other about something other than a man 
at least one female character with her own narrative arc that is not about supporting a man’s story
a female character that cannot be removed from the plot and replaced with a sexy lamp without destroying the story.
no woman assaulted, injured or killed to further the story of another character.
complex women defined by solid characterization rather than a handful of underdeveloped masculine-coded stereotypes.

Since we're assuming that you've seen the movie that we talk about (we don't hold back on spoilers, this is a full discussion), we realized we were approaching the idea of recommending the movie the wrong way. I find it hard to rate a movie in a 5-stars kind of way, so we decided to use the most popular movies rating site, Rotten Tomatoes, to provide a percentage rating. It provides both a critics rating and an audience rating, which I find interesting to discuss the reasons for each. So, we'll let Rotten Tomatoes quantify movies with their ratings, and we'll just use our words to express our overall feelings for a movie.


Let us know what you think about Maleficent and our Disney villain story ideas by emailing us at inthemoviespodcast@gmail.com. 
Listen on iTunes, Podbean, or stay right here with the player below!

Cupcakes & Cocktails: Snow White



So, now you know that I am certainly no experienced mixologist and I also can't even handle the taste of alcohol. But it's because I don't like the taste of alcohol that I became interested in learning how to make cocktails, so I can make drinks that are actually delicious but still get me drunk. ;) For now, I am finding recipes online to recreate (adjusting sometimes to what I actually have available) but as I learn more, and stock up my own bar, I'll be able to experiment with drinks to create my own. 

Why didn't the layering thing work? I think it's because the recipe said green apple schnapps but I used green apple Sour Puss because that's what I already had. The densest liquid stays at the bottom, which is the sugariest, I think. I guess Sour Puss is sugarier than schnapps, so it didn't want to stay on top. It went to the middle, actually, I guess some of the vodka without enough grenadine in it went to the top. If I had had enough green apple to make another one (I made one in the video and then another for the close-up) I would have put way too much grenadine in, to make sure it was dense enough to stay on the bottom.

Recipes:
Black Velvet Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Icing
Poison Apple Martini

Of course, I couldn't resist taking some Snow White photos while I was all dressed up. The first & last time I wore this costume was Halloween (my birthday) 2012. See those photos and how I made it here.