January...

What I've been reading, watching and doing

In a slight departure from the usual format here (mainly angry or fangirl waffling, sometimes both), I’m starting a new series, where at the end of every month I reflect on what I’ve been reading/watching/listening/doing, etc.

While I don’t flatter myself that I am in any way a beacon of taste, and while my TV watching will perpetually be about a year behind everyone else, I do enjoy reading these kinds of posts, maybe because I’m nosy/perpetually a year behind on TV watching. It’s a discussion I use with students often too, because actually what we consume informs our work- and as equally as I’m fond of telling them to include what they hate, as hating something can also be inspirational, I’m going to do that here too.

Reading

Back in December, I started a cute queer Christmas novel. Unfortunately for me, that novel was one of a six-part series. And so Christmas lasted long into January for me while I finished what I started. The series was NR Walker’s Hartbridge Christmas Series. And while they are all delightful, my personal favourite was the most recent instalment ‘Merry and Bright’ in which we have both an asexual and autistic character, who are two seperate characters. It made my heart so happy to see one not automatically equated with the other (though, of course, we exist), and that both were fully realised human characters, given a charming Christmas romance. This one, for obvious reasons, wasn’t a spicy romance, but others in the series are, if that’s your thing, and they run the spectrum from a rugged lumberjack who comes out as bisexual to an Aussie man rescued from a snowstorm. They’re all very sweet, charming and queer, with a bit of nuance and substance you don’t always find in romance novels

Get them here.

Onto something I hated…I quite like Elyse Myers, she’s funny, informative, and it’s nice to see neurodivergent creatives have an identity that isn’t forced just into that niche. However, I regrettably found her book ‘That’s a Great Question I’d Love to Tell You’ reall,y really irritating. Maybe it’s the asexual in me that just can no longer tolerate biography/autobiography that entirely hinges on relationships of a romantic and sexual nature. Maybe it’s justthat her prose voice is really annoying. Either way I got possibly my most hated book of the year in early this year.

Listening

Look, yes, I’m a basic bitch for Harry Styles. Do I think Sad Boy Disco Appature is his greatest work? No, but I will reserve judgment for the full album (and no, I didn’t get tickets, but also wasn’t willing to spend that much money and schlep to Wembley).

It will come as no surprise that, based on last week’s post, I have also been revisiting The Last Five Years. Honestly, that album is crack to us, elder Millennial theatre kids. If you aren’t screeching ‘What about liiiiiieees Jammmmmiiiie’, are you really an elder Millennial Theatre Kid? Also this album is the reason I cannot walk through Central Park without singing ‘Can we go see the dinosaurs…’ But in all seriousness, this musical cuts to my very soul and I’m always glad of a reason to revisit it.

I’ve also been listening somewhat excessively to the Heated Rivalry soundtrack, which is proving a good background noise to edit a book to, while also reigniting a love of French electro pop I had forgotten.

Watching

Yes, like everyone else, I have been watching the Gay Hockey show. I have already yapped on enough about it here, and will (be warned) yap on again (consider this a warning). I’m on my second overall watch (up to episode four as we type) and I also spent a miserable evening when I was feeling very unwell rewatching Episode Three because in this house we are Scott Hunter girlies to our core.

I’ve also been re-watching Schitt's Creek, and have just got to David and Patrick’s first date, not forgetting, by way of Scott Hunter’s evil twin…

Parallel to this, I finished the end of season four of Shoresy, and while I await Season five, I have gone back to the beginning. And my god I love this show. A little like Schitt’s Creek, I wasn’t sure at first, but it has not only really tickled a part of my sense of humour that makes me cackle out loud, but alsowoven around my heart and won’t let go. I would take a puck to the face for Shoresy, and I adore a show that places the platonic love of the main character for his friends as an equal narrative to his romantic interest. And while we’re at it I haven’t been this invested in a straight love story for quite some time. When that guy says ‘I’d be so good to ya’ I basically melt.

Staying with Canadians, I’ve been finishing Eugene Levy’s travel show. And while somewhat a connoisseur of the genre (my favourite shows growing up were Michael Palin’s travel shows), and while it is an overly glossy Apple TV production…you can’t help but love spending half an hour watching Eugene Levy bumble about different cities. It’s of the ‘Stanley Tucci wanders about eating stuff’ genre of travel TV, it’s quiet, nothing bad is going to happen….it’s delightfully an antidote to the world. That Eugene is always most excited when there’s either food to eat or an animal to pet makes him my kind of guy.

Two very similar entries to round off TV: Nobody Wants This and Emily in Paris. Similar in that they are both half-hour shows of glossy stories that, even after many episodes, I’m not entirely clear on anyone’s names or why they are doing what they do, and yet I watch anyway. Nobody Wants This is filled with objectively horrible people, but not quite in an Always Sunny or Seinfeld way, because I think the show thinks they’re nice. But also, I can’t seem to look away until this Rabbi decides what he’s doing with his life. Or maybe in fact I’m still just trying to fill the hole that Dave Rygalski left in my life in Gilmore Girls.

Meanwhile Emily In Paris is probably the worst written thing on TV, with some of the worst actors. But those terrible actors wear pretty clothes and/or take off their clothes a lot. And Minnie Driver showed up for a bit. Five seasons in and no idea what’s happening, why this woman hasn’t been deported yet…but I adore it, may it run forever.

What I’ve been doing (work)

Again, I don’t flatter myself that anyone is that invested, but having a career with some degree of public-facing elements that I occasionally forget to talk about seems like a good place to put some…

I’ve been editing. That’s about all I’ve been doing. I got the edits back on my Queer TV book (out next year) in December. Sensibly for burnt out December Emily thought ‘That’s a January problem’. Regrettably, for January Emily, that is indeed my problem, and well, here we are, up to the eyeballs in Buffy, Queer as Folk, Glee and more. There are definatly worse problems to have, but also writing is work, and regrettably books don’t edit themselves so it’s currently a lot of work.

Meanwhile, I signed a contract (I think I can say, and oh well if not) for a book on Gilmore Girls with Intellect as part of their TV Matters series. That is very much a ‘summer Emily’ problem currently because meanwhile… (and yes I will be lamenting justice for both Laine and Dave Rygawlski)

We’re preparing for the release of Rainbow Wales this May, with Calon, the publisher of my Russell T Davies book. I think it’s a really interesting book that will be a real insight into our queer history for Welsh folks and those who just really love Welsh Drag Queens or H from Steps. Order this Rainbow here.

Meanwhile, I’m also teaching a lot. January is ‘Write a Play’ month with London Playwright,s and it’s always a joy- but a busy one. But getting to see what people have been working on makes it all worthwhile.

You can also find me in February back at Bishopsgate Institute with some LGBTQ+ history month content….

Book online here.

What I’ve been doing (fun)

It’s January. Nothing. There is no fun to be had in this endless grey month.

Ok, well, maybe not outside. But I have of course been in the trenches of hockey season, I always joke that Janauary/Febuary is the true test of a hockey fan, if we were there just for the hot men as the Financial Times suggested last year, you would not be dragging yourself out in the freezing rain (cos Wales) to sit in an ice box to watch your team lose miserably. Luckily, we’ve been on quite the positive streak, with some of the most entertaining games in a while, and while my team are the messiest of bitches at times, they’re my messy bitches, and lately I’ve been reminded why I do in fact love them so much.

I’ve also truly been loving skating again for the first time in a year. Taking myself away from some of the noise really helped; my skating isn’t for Instagram stories, or to train for the Olympics or really for anyone else. I currently have lessons with a bunch of truly supportive women who are all there just for fun, and we laugh as well as skate, and that seems to be the best kind of skating. A coach who also understands my often-confused brain and has patiently rebuilt what was broken last year, has also helped.

So that’s January…may this month perhaps finally end soon and restore some daylight to our lives. Meanwhile I’m going to go and test who is an ally at the icerink with my new tops…(yes yes I did choose that phrase deliberatly thanks for noticing)