By Christine Stoddard

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​This episode of the Badass Lady-Folk podcast features an interview between host Christine Stoddard and Abigail Gabor, a TikTok influencer known for comedy videos about Autism, theatre, and Jewish identity.

By The Editors

By The Editors

Parlez-vous français? Don't worry if you don't know French. "The Super 8 Years," an autobiographical film and directorial debut of French author Annie Ernaux has subtitles. (Sorry if you're a 'dubs, not subs' type but yay if you're not?) This 61-minute journey in home movies delves into the author/director's family life from 1972 to 1981. Chronicling the highs and lows of being a wife, mother, and young author, "The Super 8 Years" tiptoes the boundaries of nostalgia without lingering too long there. While you might expect to see French suburban life of a certain era portrayed in the all-Super 8 film, it's not all you see. You also catch glimpses of Albania, Egypt, Spain, and the USSR. Perhaps most poignantly, you see and hear Ernaux's observations about how what's not shown on camera says the most about her marriage, its eventual decline, and how this period was crucial to her becoming a published writer. "The Super 8 Years" opens Dec. 17, 2022 at DCTV in New York City. Find out more here.

By The Editors

Join Quail Bell at the Greenwich Village Comedy Club in New York City on Friday, December 2nd!
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Ranting, raging...this is a comedic one-woman show about finally giving in and reading Jack Kerouac's critically acclaimed Beat Generation novel On the Road as a recent divorcée and authoress in her early 30s. Damn, isn't she glad she didn't read it as a young, impressionable English major! It's so much better that she read it as a jaded survivor of marriage and the publishing industry! What's so great about the book again? Seems like all the wives and girlfriends get a pretty raw deal! And let's count all the ways you can tell a man wrote the book! You think he packed all those road trip snacks himself?

​It doesn't matter if you've read the book before, either. Christine will have juicy excerpts selected for you, don't worry.

Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rage-against-on-the-road-a-one-woman-show-by-christine-stoddard-tickets-432147072527

By Sydnie Stern

By The Editors

Feathers up! We recommend: "Framing Agnes" is a parafiction, a docudrama, a play between talk show and academic exploration centering Agnes, a transwoman who participated in gender research at UCLA in the 1950s. While director Chase Joynt's constant pivot between fiction and non-fiction at times muddles the film's storyline, that's part of the point: there is so much we don't know about any historical figure's narrative. That's especially true for a marginalized, pseudonymized person navigating a system set against her. Everyone has (and deserves) a private life.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of "Finding Agnes" is its questions of how icons are made and who gets to represent a movement—not just among transgender people but any identity or community throughout history. There's plenty that we can imagine about icons from the past, though we should be cautious about making assumptions. Bonus points for creativity and visual details, especially the editing and trans cast's Period piece wardrobe. You'll leave the film pondering some philosophical and political questions but won't forget the eye candy. 

"Finding Agnes" will show in select theaters beginning December 2nd. Tickets are available here.

By Sydnie Stern

“The Real Bling Ring, a 2022 Netflix docuseries, is an intimate conversation with several now-adult criminals involved in Hollywood’s most notorious teenage heist.”

A string of multi-million dollar burglaries, masterminded by Valley teenagers and 20-somethings, shocked the planet in 2009. Exclusively targeting celebrity residents such Paris Hilton and Rachel Bilson, the crime was motivated by a shared desire for a piece of luxury. Known in pop culture as "The Bling Ring", Rachel Lee, Nick Norgo (then Prugo), Alexis Neiers (then Haines), and several other accomplices used Google Maps to orchestrate their heists. The stranger-than-fiction story of unsophisticated robbers, who regularly visited Hilton's Calabasas mansion to stock up on designer goods, materializes on screen for a second time in 2022. 

By Christine Stoddard

Hey, maybe it's corny, but a corn maze always sounds like a fun Fall adventure to me! Since there's one in New York City that really leans into the corniness and calls itself the Amazing Maize Maze, you know I had to check it out. On Indigenous People's Day, my boyfriend and I swung over to the Queens County Farm Museum in Queens, New York to get our puzzle fix. This year's theme is painter Georgia O'Keeffe! That means all of the clues hidden throughout the maze relate to the artist, her life, and her work. l happily got mud on my boots while learning about O'Keeffe's 2014 auction record for female artists and the fact that she studied at Columbia University's Teacher's College. You're handed a flag and activity booklet at the start of the maze and then weave (or bumble) your way through the cornfield, completing a crossword puzzle, maze map, and labyrinth in the process. Oh, and cute alert: the pieces of paper you need for your maze map are tucked inside of white mailboxes! When you finish the maze, you tell the announcer your team name and she proclaims your victory on a mic for all to hear. Our name? The Corn Daddies.

For those seeking a creative take on the ol' corn maze classic, I highly recommend this one! The Amazing Maize Maze runs through October 29th. Adult admission is $12. Find out more here.

By Amy Lee

“Like an ocean and moon on the inside at the same time, 
we orbit and are orbited by.”

Jess L Parker's debut poetry collection, star things, is an ethereal and exquisite tribute to all things celestial, cosmic and calamity of the heart. These 69 pages microscope into the soul and the universe, often with a surprising twist and heartfelt kick at the end of the poem. Through lyrical pace, experimental formats, contemporary chic and beautiful metaphors, she delves into every love, every bruise and everyday life.

​The depiction of abandonment is most powerful in poems such as Moonless (“Leave it on the island were you left me…”) and Dream Life (“If two people could sneak a dream to meet, they were we.”).