Stuff I Love Right Now
I usually include a recommendation at the end of every newsletter for a piece of music, a book or a TV show/movie. I haven't been doing that lately, because things got super hectic, and the newsletter itself became a bit sporadic.
So here is a list of things I've been loving lately! (Note: Want my recommendations for recent science fiction and fantasy books? Go here.)
De Volta Aos 15 (Back to 15)
I'm super obsessed with this time-travel show (see pic above.) It's a Brazilian Netflix show in which thirty-year-old Anita discovers that when she opens her old photo-blog from 2006, she travels back in time and becomes her fifteen-year-old self. It's silly and goofy, but the characters grow and develop over time. And as someone who prefers messy time travel, I appreciate that every time Anita returns to the present, her life has changed beyond recognition due to her actions in 2006. (In season two, they do a storyline reminiscent of Back to the Future, and just when I was starting to go "waaaiiiitaminute" one of the characters straight-up says, "This is just like BTTF!") Anita uses her time-travel powers to meddle with her friends and frenemies' lives, and actually kind of makes them better people along the way, despite being kind of a trash monster herself.
A major reason I love De Volta Aos 15 is Camila, the show's trans character. As an adult, she's fully transitioned, gorgeous, and comfortable in her own skin, but meanwhile we see the teenage Camila stumbling toward her transition, and it's handled with a lot of sensitivity and care. (Alice Marcone, who plays the adult Camila, is trans herself — and she is also one of the writers on the show. Do you know how rare that is? I haven't heard of it happening with a trans character in the U.S., full stop. Marcone is also the first trans country music singer in Brazil, ever.) Finally, this show is SO GAY, especially season two. I was actually shocked at how gay it got. It's just adorable and sweet, and I'm gonna rewatch it many times. Note: Season two ends with a very satisfying ending, but a third season has been greenlit.
Nimona
And here's another Netflix thing! Based on the graphic novel by ND Stevenson, this is an animated movie about a knight who gets framed for murder, only to befriend a chaotic shapeshifter with pink hair. I love the adorable relationship between Sir Ballister Boldheart and Nimona the shape-shifter. There's also a lot of great stuff about how easily power-hungry jerks can portray marginalized people as monsters in order to maximize their own power. It's all extremely sweet and gentle (except that it gets dark and violent here and there), but the best part is definitely Nimona herself, a shapeshifter who can't stay in one shape forever without experiencing extreme discomfort. Nimona won't remain static just to make other people feel comfortable, which makes her a good role model for all those of us feel the need to reinvent ourselves.
Burn It Down by Maureen Ryan
I've known Maureen Ryan a long time, and I've been blown away but her commitment to calling out the culture of abuse in Hollywood. But still, this book is nothing short of astonishing — a painstaking dissection of the systemic harassment in the TV industry, and the terrible power dynamics that enable it. Ryan goes extra deep into talking about specific examples: Lost, Sleepy Hollow, and... the Muppets? But she also pulls back, taking a wide view of how misogyny, racism, and queer-phobia go hand in hand with an excessively hierarchical culture that coddles and exalts certain high-value creators over everyone else. Vitally, she also includes a final section with thoughtful recommendations for fixing this mess. This is the must-read book of #hotstrikesummer.
The Omnichord Real Book by Meshell Ndegeocello
Ndegeocello has been focused on covers for a while: back in 2011, the brilliant vocalist, basis and songwriter did a series of concerts of all Prince songs, and five years ago she put out an amazing cover album called Ventriloquism. Now she's back with her first album of original songs in ages, and... it slaps. So hard. Ndegeocello creates a densely layered soundscape, full of lilting voices, horns, guitars and percussive instruments of all types, and her lyrics weave seamlessly between the extremely personal and the very political. Like a lot of her stuff, Omnichord Real Book has a very meditative, introspective feel at times, peppered with bits of disco, funk, electronica and ultra-catchy pop. I sort of feel like there's a bit of Lonnie Liston Smith's cosmic jazz embedded in some of these songs. Songs like "Gatsby" and "Towers" get more meaningful every time I listen to them. This album has been my writing soundtrack lately, and I don't know if I would have gotten my novel draft done on time without this beautiful inspiration.
Polite Society
Nida Manzoor's We Are Lady Parts is one of my favorite TV shows of the past few years, so I was pumped for her movie Polite Society, which is now on Peacock. (And yes, it's worth paying for a month of Peacock just to watch this movie.) Ria Khan is an aspiring stunt woman whose sister Lena is suddenly about to marry Salim, the most eligible bachelor in her small Muslim community. But Ria is convinced her sister's fiancé is up to no good, and concocts a series of plans that are straight out of her favorite action movies, to uncover the truth and break up the engagement. The story gets a bit murky in the middle section, as we start to wonder if Ria ought to just respect her sister's agency and let her make her own mistakes. But colorful characters and gorgeously choreographed action carry you through, and the final act is utterly perfect. Seriously — I wish most superhero movies had action and heroics as thrilling and vivid as this.
Mashup Power Hour by Titus Jones
A lot of my friends seem to feel like mashups are over. They were cool back in the 2000s and early 2010s, now they're just kind of sad and pointless. But I'm here to tell you there are still some freaking great mashups being made — and Titus Jones is one of the best mashup DJs around. To prove it, he's released a second volume of his mashup power hour compilation, featuring 60 mashups in one hour -- plus a few extra for good measure. Almost all of these tracks are bangers, and he's basically just showing off at this point. The first volume is even better, but volume two still kicks so much booty. (No pun intended.) There are a lot of combinations in here that you're sure will never work, and then, amazingly, they do — and then it's over. It's endless fun, culminating in a mashup of Britney Spears' "Toxic" with "Agatha All Along" from WandaVision.
Disco Deluxe by HallMighty Vol. 1 & 2
And here's another mashup recommendation for good measure. HallMighty takes a whole bunch of classic disco songs and mashes them up with other great music. Honestly, I have not been able to stop listening to this, and it's been months. The first track, mashing up Chic with Yes, is both utterly addictive and very representative of how absurdly danceable and fun these mashups are. There have been more volumes after the first two, but they veered away from featuring so much classic disco. In any case, these first two volumes are a brilliant reminder of how good mashups still can be.
Rolling the dice on race in Dungeons & Dragons (Code Switch)
I just listened to this episode of the Code Switch podcast, because they re-ran it, and wow. It's the best discussion of race in Dungeons and Dragons I've ever heard. It manages to be approachable for people who know nothing about DnD, but I still learned a lot as someone pretty familiar with the game.
Minx season 2
Minx is a wonderful show about an idealistic young feminist who starts a porn magazine with a group of sleazeballs and misfits, set in the early 1970s. The first season aired on the streamer formerly known as HBO Max, but the show was canceled after they had already filmed season 2. Now that second season is getting a new lease of life on Starz, and it's worth the five bucks a month that Starz is charging for new subscriptions right now. The best thing I can say about this show is that it feels like a worthy successor to the also canceled-too-soon Glow, with its period setting, nuanced-yet-hilarious characters, and use of sleaze to probe our gender and racial divisions. You all need to watch Minx season two, so we can get a third season.
Disco Heat: The Fantasy Years 1977-1981 by Sylvester
Sylvester is a queer icon, especially here in San Francisco. Before he was a disco superstar, he was part of a beloved local performance troop called the Cockettes — you should definitely check out the documentary about that if you haven't seen it. He was also defiantly femme, dressing in women's clothes and owning his queerness at a time when few other music stars would or could. And his music was incredible! He brought gospel and heavy soul into disco, and covered a lot of musical ground along the way, with the help of his backup singers, two tons of fun. I had always really liked Sylvester's music but had never seriously gotten into it, until I found this compilation, which features extended disco mixes of all of his hits as well as a bunch of deep cuts. It's a powerhouse set, and a crash course in all things Sylvester. I cannot possibly recommend it too highly.
Wham!
Speaking of another classic disco artist... this Netflix documentary showcases the early years of George Michaels career and his early friendship with Andrew Ridgeley. They founded the iconic band Wham! together and fought to move past the overly simplistic rebel image the record company pushed on them early on. This documentary plays like an antidote to every toxic episode of Behind The Music you ever watched. You keep waiting for there to be a clash of egos or a drug fueled rampage, or some artistic snit fit. And it never happens, mostly because Andrew Ridgeley seems to have been a class act, who recognized early on that his best friend George was the real talent of the group, and that Andrew simply had to get out of George's way and let him shine. It's a beautiful picture of non-toxic masculinity and friendship, and I am here for it.
Mrs. Davis
Here's the other reason to splurge on a month of Peacock — this show about a nun who goes to war against an A.I. that is taking over the world is an endless delight. When I first heard that this show was about faith versus technology, I was expecting something sombre or even melodramatic. Lots of scowling and ponderous speechifying. But no! Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof created one of the silliest shows I've seen in a very long time, one which keeps you guessing in the best way — and the ending actually makes sense. It's so much fun.
Never Have I Ever
I swear I did not mean to include so many Netflix things on this list. But the final season of this epic dramedy about Devi, a girl navigating love and college admissions while getting over the death of her father, is one of the most impressive things I've seen in a long time. I was sure that this show was going to end with a whimper, after the love triangle that had seemed to be at the center of its story had clearly run its course. I am so happy to be proven wrong. This is the kind of final season that not only ends with a bang, but also elevates everything that came before by showing how far the characters have come. I am going to need to rewatch the entire series again soon.
My Stuff
This Saturday at 12:30 PM is the Trans Nerd Meet Up at Zeitgeist in SF.
I'm going to be at FlameCon in NYC, Aug 12-13!
The following weekend, I'll be at the San Diego Festival of Books
I wrote a YA space opera trilogy! The first two books, Victories Greater Than Death and Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, were both nominated for the Lodestar Award and both books have won the Locus Award for Best YA Novel. (It's too soon to tell if Dreams wins the Lodestar this year.) And the third book, Promises Stronger Than Darkness, is out now.
I created a trans superhero named Escapade for Marvel Comics, along with Ted Brandt and Ro Stein. You can read about her in the 2022 Pride issue and then in New Mutants Vol. 4 and New Mutants: Lethal Legion (preorder link).