Queerly Recommended

There are no listener questions this week, so things get a bit heated.

Tara regales us with her story of spite ice cream. Kris weighs in on reality show judging. Then it's a knock down, drag out brawl with...Happiest Season? Close your ears, gentle listeners, as there is not much love for this movie here.

Kris's official recommendation this week is for the Hallmark holiday film Every Time a Bell Rings and Tara recommends the f/f romance Read Between the Lines by Rachel Lacey.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider buying Kris & Tara a Ko-fi!

Works Discussed

• Neither Present Time by Caren Werlinger
• Hanna Season Three (Amazon Prime)
• The Morning Show Season Two (Apple TV)
• The Wheel of Time (Amazon Prime)
• RuPaul's Drag Race UK
• Canada's Drag Race
• Work in Progress (Showtime)
• The Brutal Truth Truth by Lee Winter
• Happiest Season (2020)
• You've Got Mail (1998)

A lot of good questions on the pod this week. Kris details her editing woes, her paradoxical love of editors, and the blessing/curse of being a working writer. Then Tara joins her as they both go deep into how they found lesfic before giving all you angst-lovers out there some gut-wrenching recommendations. Enjoy, we guess?

Official recommendations for this week are Beginner's Bet by Fiona Riley from Kris, and The Headmistress by Milena McKay from Tara.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider buying Kris & Tara a Ko-fi!

Also discussed:

• Letters Never Sent by Sandra Moran
• Love's Melody Lost by Radclyffe
• The Goodmans by Clare Ashton
• Waiting in the Wings by Melissa Brayden
• Entangled by Melissa Brayden
• Dexter (Showtime)
• The Morning Show (Apple TV)
• The Great British Baking Show (BBC)
• QI (BBC)
• The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (Channel 4)
• The Demon Equilibrium by Cathy Pegau
• RuPaul's Drag Race UK
• Canada's Drag Race
• We're Here (HBO)

Transcript coming soon

This week we've got something special. Something very, very 2005. It's a commentary track for Imagine Me & You!

A lot of people love this movie, but it's also kind of strange. It's a cheating story about a woman who is tempted to leave her husband for a florist who only has one pair of pants. And people are all right with the cheating? (Which we all know is the ultimate lesfic no-no.) It's weird.

And did we mention it's also very, very 2005? A Dance Dance Revolution machine even appears at a pivotal point!

So sit back, get Imagine Me & You ready, and turn on this track at the same time. Enjoy!

If you enjoy this commentary track, please consider buying Kris & Tara a Ko-fi!

Tara and Kris are back and raring to go. Kris recalls her exploits at Women's Week at Ptown before delving into writerly questions. Tara opens up about her youth, pretending to be an olden-times camp follower. Recommendations are made, laughs are had, and the important question of "Would you rather be a vampire or werewolf?" Is asked...and answered!

Official recommendations for this week are The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (narrated by Alma Cuervo, Julia Whelan and Robin Miles) and Squad, written by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and illustrated by Lisa Sterle.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider buying Kris & Tara a Ko-fi!

Also discussed:

• Bold Strokes Books Youtube (Recorded Panels from Women's Week)
• Against All Odds by Kris Bryant, Maggie Cummings and M. Ullrich
• The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: The World Beyond
• The Great British Baking Show
• Persona 5: Royal (ATLUS)
• Mythic Quest (Apple TV)
• Maintenance Phase (Podcast)
• The Mermaid, The Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

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It's a spooky month, so Tara and Kris are celebrating with a new film commentary! What to do when your hosts don't like horror movies? Snark about The Rocky Horror Picture Show, of course. (Also, Kris was in P-Town when they needed to record the next episode, so it worked out.)

Kris and Tara dive into this important, unabashedly queer, classic that might... not be good? Kris discusses losing her Rocky Horror virginity at whatever age she says she is. Tara talks about the patriarchy and her father's favourite song at weddings.

Sit back, fire up The Rocky Horror Picture Show on the device of your choice, and hit play on this commentary track. Let's do the time warp AGAAAAAAAIN!

There's nothing clever to say about twenty-two. It's even, divisible by eleven. It's...just there really. By contrast, this episode has substance.

Kris and Tara are talking about movies they'd like to see and actors...they have no idea about actors. Kris discusses her P-Town plans and prepares herself for some post-Covid socializing ugly crying. Tara joins in with her thoughts about Everybody's Talking About Jamie. Oh, and Kris reveals a hilarious and stunningly socially awkward moment. It's *chef kiss* stuff.

Official recommendations for this week are The Intervention (2016) from Kris and The Good Place from Tara.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider buying Kris & Tara a Ko-fi!

Also discussed:

• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
• Stick McLaughlin by CF Frizzell
• The Walking Dead
• L-Word: Generation Q
• Season of Love (2019)
• Everybody's Talking About Jamie
• The Headmistress by Milena McKay
• The Lost Girls by Sonja Hartl

Transcript coming soon

Happy 21st! The only thing this podcast can't do is become president...yet.

Kris and Tara cover a lot of ground in this episode. Kris reveals she has a List of Pure Voices after Tara recounts her surprise at hearing Liza Minelli sing during a YouTube rabbit hole sesh. Our hosts give their two cents about their favourite FFBs (Funny Fucking Books). And then there's some disagreement about whether or not Dickinson is for them.

Lots of recs today, with the big ones coming in strong. This week Kris brings a movie with possibly the best title ever, Abbie and Ellie (and Ellie's Dead Aunt), and Tara follows with the HBO series We're Here.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider buying Kris & Tara a Ko-fi!

Also discussed:

• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
• Timeless by Rachel Spangler
• Off Limits by Vanessa North
• The U-Haul Diary by KB Draper
• Demons Shemons and Spirits Smirits by KB Draper
• Just Jorie by Robin Alexander
• 31 Books that Made Us LOL from The Lesbian Review
• Maxxie LaWow: Drag Super-shero Animated Film Funding Campaign
• The Walking Dead (The Final Season)
• The L Word: Generation Q
• The Great British Bake-Off
• Schitt's Creek
• Dickinson
• Match to Love by Johana Gavez
• Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

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Kris is the Cassandra of recommendations. How did we not realize this before? She lays down winners, and Tara? She will not budge. Listen to Kris, Tara! Everybody! Unless you can't. Because, you know, Cassandra. What were we talking about again?

This episode goes some places. For official recommendations Kris brings 2020 film Joe Bell to the table. It's an important but difficult movie that deals with the painful reality that many queer youth go through every day. To balance it out, Tara brings the exact opposite with About That Kiss by Harper Bliss.

Content warning for bullying, harassment and queer youth suicide in the discussion of Joe Bell 32:08 - 41:33.

If you're a parent or family member of a queer kiddo and are looking for support, contact your local chapter of PFLAG. And if you are a young, queer person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgment-free place to talk (or know one such person), reach out to The Trevor Project.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider buying Kris & Tara a Ko-fi!

Also discussed:

• A Tip of the Tongue Podcast
• The Walking Dead (AMC)
• The L Word: Generation Q
• He's All That (Netflix)
• Cinderella (Amazon)
• RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars Season Six (Finale)
• Wild Nights with Emily (2018)

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19. 19 is about getting cocky. It's about feeling yourself. And what's more 19 than starting a podcast episode with a round of Fuck, Marry, Kill using the cast of The L Word and expecting you'll be friends by the end?

Kris answers the question of whether she'd write anything outside of lesbian romance. Tara brings the latest game phenom Boyfriend Dungeon to the table to discuss how the rules are different for queer creators. Also, Kris tells the story of how she has tiger blood (or something).

Official recommendations this week are Netflix's The Old Guard, with Kris swooning over Charlize Theron and the rest of her immortal buddies. Tara gushes about Lily Seabrooke's Fake It, an f/f romance with a trans lead written by a trans author. It's a fake relationship romance, people!

Note: spoilers for the season finale of Alone from 11:07-14:17

If you enjoy this episode, please consider buying Kris & Tara a Ko-fi!

Also discussed:

• Alone, Season 8 Finale (History)
• The Walking Dead (Final Season)
• The Great British Bake-Off (BBC)
• The Great Canadian Baking Show (CBC)
• Baroness von Sketch Show (CBC)
• The L-Word
• The L-Word: Generation Q
• RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, Season 6
• Boyfriend Dungeon (Kitfox Games)
• Dream Daddy (Game Grumps)

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In her twenties, Tara learned in the eulogy of a famous Detroit news anchor that he had an enduring fondness for the "Windsor Ballet." And today is your lucky day, because you're going to learn about this Canadian cultural institution. You've heard about the Calgary Stampede. Now it's time to go to the ballet. Never let it be said we don't go places on this podcast.

The official recommendations this week are proper bangers. Kris gives a rousing endorsement of the 2020 film Cowboys, about a trans boy fighting for his identity and the troubled father who fights for him. Tara brings out the big guns with Ann Bannon's groundbreaking Beebo Brinker series.

This isn't the first time Tara has spoken about Ann's influence in lesfic. After the episode, if you want to learn more about Ann, you can listen to Tara's 2019 interview with Lynn Ames about why Beebo Brinker is essential reading and the interview with Ann Bannon that Tara references in the podcast:

CONTENT WARNING FOR DISCUSSION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD: 31:05 - 32:15.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider buying Kris & Tara a Ko-fi!

Also discussed:

• Glow Up Season Three (Netflix)
• The L Word: Generation Q Season Two (Showtime)
• Alone Season Two (History)
• Jungle Cruise (Disney)
• Busy Ain't The Half of It by Frederick Smith and Chaz Lamar Cruz
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (2017)
• The White Lotus (HBO)
• Curious Wine by Katherine V. Forrest

Get the transcript