Crayons for Days

“Into the Blue,” by Emma Brodie is all that you can imagine for a swoony, epic love story. You laugh, you get teary, you sigh, and after you turn the last page, the characters of AJ and Noah stay with you.

I loved it. I gave it 5 stars.

But what was super interesting and why I’m posting this for my fandom-adjacent, fandom-interested tumblr followers is for the window into fan conventions. Long story short, our MCs appeared in an obscure, one season only, but much loved niche fictional tv show called “Into the Blue,” a follow up series to an also obscure but much loved fictional tv show called “Astronauticals.” As a teen, AJ loved Astronauticals so much, she wrote fanfic read by a small but dedicated group of followers. Sound familiar?

Anyhoo, the Into the Blue tv show develops a passionate fandom who soak up anything and everything Into the Blue related and who are called the “Blue Coats.” Without giving plot info away, AJ makes the decision to appear at a series of fan conventions for a brutally practical reason: she will make a ton of money and she will make more money if more cast members, especially the star of the show, Noah, also appear. The reasons for the money grab would be a spoiler alert so you’ll have to read the book! But I promise: her reasons are for good, not greed.

While it’s a comparatively brief part of the 436-page novel, the fan convention appearances gave me food for thought on why cast members participate in a fan convention. Fan conventions mean one thing for fans (who know full well the reasons why they are going) and something else for the former cast members. And for fans and actors their reasons to attend are as different as night and day.

I highly recommend this book for its story, its love story and its main characters who you begin to root for the moment they meet.

But I also recommend it so you can see what a non-toxic fandom is supposed to look like. Spoiler alert: the OL tv show fandom is not an example of a non-toxic fandom.

Be well, friends. I hope you’re having a good summer and have read a few good books!📚

Are Dodgers games the go-to for all his ladies?

The best Dodgers game was the circa-2017 game. ⬇️

Now the game is old and tired. Like the game player.

I finished the excellent novel, “Yesteryear,” a couple of days ago. Social media figures in the storyline as does an unreliable narrator. The book cover very effectively represents how social media distorts what we see and many times what we are to believe. I recommend it, but it’s an intense read — be on the lookout for its content warnings.

Social media isn’t real life. You don’t need to be a C-list celebrity to understand that.

Be well and read a good book, friends.📚

I know you’re frustrated. I get it. I get frustrated too, until I remember how stupid it all was 12 years ago when it was fresh ridiculousness. Not these dodgy leftovers.

Don’t give the troll blog the satisfaction of discussing anything remotely having to do with their fan fiction. It’s soooo 2014.

Be well, friends.

Sam is neither the best person nor the worst person in the world. And a troll blog is once again crafting a Sam narrative for its readers to eagerly consume while hopefully forgetting the content is about as questionable as yogurt past its “Use by” date.

For 11 years it’s been said a hundred different ways, but it’s still worth repeating: Sam keeps his private life private. Everything he lets fans see or that fans scrape off social media like a barnacle off a boat is as genuine and everlasting as a temporary tattoo.

Be well and take time for yourselves this holiday season, friends.

My two cents, FWIW:

Don’t be a courier pigeon for whatever message Sam is trying to send.

Ignore all of it like Sam ignores the fact that for past 11 years he’s needed a new stylist.

Even if we are right and I believe we are, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like Sam says, “Curses! They figured it out! Guess I need a new strategy.” He doesn’t care. It’s a zero sum game for him. When you lose—and that is defined as anything but completely ignoring the theatrics — he wins.

It’s all performative. It’s tedium. Like being caught in a traffic jam with nothing to do except stare at the rear bumper of the car ahead of you.

I hope the next time I check in, I see lots of nostalgic gifs, photos, and social media screen shots from the times when good things happened in the fandom. There is enough of that content to glide from here right through season 8 promo with ease.

Be well, friends.

Why Sam prostrates himself before an entertainment industry that consistently gives him and his career the middle finger, is beyond me.

https://www.threads.net/@chattycate

FOMO got me onto threads, but I’ll still continue to post on my other social media accounts.

I will post mostly about books, history (fashion/textile and other), artifact and object preservation/conservation, art, tv shows and movies, and of course the occasional hot take on all things OL and its fandom.😉

Ignore all of it. Don’t go looking for explanations, don’t waste energy refuting things. It doesn’t change anything; the trolls don’t care—they’re only interested in staying relevant in a fandom that isn’t new anymore.

Just fangirl the things that bring you joy. Compared to other OL promo times this one has been a breath of fresh air. Enjoy that. Don’t step on that by paying attention to anons or bloggers who are a sideshow showcasing other sideshows —real or imagined. Why watch the sideshows when you can be under the big tent fangirling with your friends.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Stay cool this summer in more ways than one.😎

That said, I’ve seen the name Nora Ephron invoked—once by Sam—in terms of the film genre of romantic comedy. It can’t be said enough, but Nora Ephron was a genius — whether that was her books or screenplays. But she was in a class all by herself when it came to romantic comedies, particularly “Sleepless in Seattle,” and the iconic “When Harry Met Sally.”

It’s not to say there weren’t some just okay ones—I think “You’ve Got Mail” tried too hard. But WHMS and SIS are romantic comedy gold. They make you laugh, they make you swoon, and most importantly they make you believe in the happy ending.

Romantic comedies—good ones—require two things: great chemistry between the leads and ever greater writing. You have to laugh not just because it’s funny, but because at the same time, you say “Yes, that makes total sense.” Nora Ephron’s romantic comedies were also observations on life —whether it was the terror of those first few dates after a significant breakup or how everyone cries when they watch Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in “An Affair to Remember.”

One of the most iconic lines in SIS is when Annie’s (played by Meg Ryan) work friend Becky (played by Rosie O’Donnell) says to Annie, “You don’t want to fall in love. You want to fall in love in a movie.” The audience instantly knows what Becky means by that. That is romantic comedy writing at its best.

If you’re in the mood to revisit some of the best romantic comedies, here are five possibilities. The late 1980s and early 90s really were the second golden age of romantic comedies (after the 1930s and 40s) They all are a bit different, but they are all memorable and most importantly, funny:

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Moonstruck (1987)

Broadcast News (1987)

Singles (1995)

So a word about that: I’ve been in or around the OL fandom since October 2014. I’ve been here for most of the good and I’ve witnessed a lot of the bad. I know some of you have beliefs that do not match mine in terms of particular data points shall we say. I’m not here to debate any of that. I will not have the ask feature on because unlike the brave souls who do, that is not my jam. I hope we can all be in community and enjoy the good fangirling days—even though they’re less frequent than they used to be.

So thank you again for your kind welcome! Here’s my fave SC photo - I had to scroll waaaaay back in my camera roll for this one.😂 I like it because it came at the end of a bad run of fandom days and to me it represented focusing on what brought us to the fandom, not the stuff that was a distraction. Cheers!