Whiskers on Kittens // 9

The queer things we’ve been up to and into

Word has it that Amazon Studios might be giving A League of Their Own the short shrift—yes, finally a possible Season 2 renewal, but only 4 episodes with a diminished budget. This is bullshit. ALOTO is a quality show that’s diverse and queer with a devoted audience, a show with meaningful stories that should get their proper due. Many members of queer community want this show, but it sounds like the powers-that-be don’t care about what we want. We deserve better. As we recently wrote, power needs to shift from corporate headquarters to the communities hungry for stories that speak to them. Co-creator Will Graham says this isn’t yet a final decision and that “people are listening”, so get out there and make some noise—one collective of fans is even flying a plane with a banner over the Studios today, but a tweet or IG post will do. #ALeagueOfTheirOwn #MoreThanFour

Wreck (2022) created by Ryan J. Brow. This British horror-comedy is basically a Gen Z Upstairs, Downstairs set on a mega cruise ship where someone dressed as the ship’s mascot in a duck costume is killing people. Sometimes all we need is some light-yet-murderous fare and, this week, Wreck fits that bill (pun totally intended). There’s gaggles of gays, mysteries to be solved, and a splash of gore. We’re looking forward to finding out what happens next in the forthcoming Season 2, including the lovely queer friendship between the two lead characters, Vivian and Jamie. We found the glimpse of life working on a mega ship to be both fascinating and infuriating given the class hierarchies that play out on mega cruises (and the fact that they exist in the first place). 

“Sugar” by Amythyst Kiah. One of the hardest things so far about TQY is not being able to listen to Björk, PJ Harvey, and Tori Amos any time we want (which used to be pretty often). We’ve both been listening to all three artists regularly for over 3 decades, so we’re in withdrawals. Cue covers of their expansive discographies. Since we heard Amythyst Kiah’s rendition of Tori Amos’s haunting 1992 song “Sugar” (from the singular Little Earthquakes album—which we each got on cassette when it came out), we have been singing it to each other nonstop. Amythyst has a handful of newly released covers, in addition to this Tori one, gracing us with her take on songs like Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead.

Speaking of sugar… IT’S GIRL SCOUT COOKIE TIME!

Nobody needs convincing to want to buy a few (dozen) boxes of the US’s favorite seasonal cookies, but we hope everyone who can will do so by supporting one of these awesome troops / scouts:

Troop 400600 - Our friend Rhiannon volunteers with Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, an Oregon chapter that “uses Girl Scout experiences to preserve and strengthen bonds between girls ages 5-18 and their family members currently incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, who all serve as our troop leaders and co-facilitators.” 

Troop 6000 - This awesome troop was founded with great effort by Giselle Burgess in 2017 to support girls who are living in the NYC shelter system across the city. 

Trans and NB Scouts - The trans activist and queer news & history journalist Erin Reed (highly recommend their Substack, link below) compiled a list of trans girl and non-binary scouts who you can buy cookies from directly.

Go stock up! 

If you can’t or don’t want to have a mountain of Girl Scout Cookies in your cupboard (and freezer), get some to give a little sweetness to someone else’s life, whether leaving some boxes your local food pantry or by donating boxes of cookies to Meals on Wheels or NYC Food Banks through the order form.

Kandy by Fever Ray. Karin Dreijer is one of those queerdo artists who we love, whether it’s their work with their brother as the duo The Knife (we can’t forget this The Knife banger) or their solo work as Fever Ray. We’re so excited about Radical Romantics, Fever Ray’s new album, because we’ve been listening to the stellar single Kandy on repeat. All girls and ghouls want Kandy—indeed. We especially love the video (embedded below) because we love how wonderful and weird and oddly sexy the entire thing is. The entirety of Radical Romantics is online, with music videos for all the songs, and watching them all in one sitting makes for a haunting and beautiful gothic-glam filmic experience.

Heather

Flaming Ears (1992) co-directed by A. Hans Scheirl, Dietmar Schipek, and Ursula Pürrer. This is one of those films that you used to have to befriend a really cool queer to watch their über shitty burn of Flaming Ears… but now, thanks a recent restoration of this Super 8 film, we can all take a trip to the year 2700 and spend some time in the city of Asche. This queer, underground, post-apocalyptic sci-fi, Austrian gem is less concerned with having a conventional narrative, instead offering a vibe, an experience. Flaming Ears also shows us collective filmmaking, sapphic camp, and DIY (dyke-it-yourself) ingenuity and imagination. Don’t miss this rhizomatic tale if you are the type of person who enjoys experimental art that includes stop-motion animation, gender fuckery, masturbation, aliens, reptiles, cacti, pyromaniacs, spies, revenge, nuns, and lots of lesbians.

Amie

Print artworks by MC Carey, Femme Prints

Artist MC Carey, Femme Prints. I have so much admiration for printmakers—block carving is such an incredible artistic process, from initial design to first test print. MC Carey is no exception and certainly a standout, especially in their process videos on IG, which I find as soothing as I do inspirational. I’m swooning over a recent one showing a test print of their new giant hawk design (a sneak peek shown above). Just stunning. They have a range of prints available in their store here.