Time is a Bitch
and other musings from Ange
Happy new year! I say this partially in jest because it’s June (duh), but also with a tinge of sincerity, as we meant to send this update in February…hence the title of this Substack. If you’ve listened to our new segment “This Bitch,” you know that the word bitch can be both good and bad, and in this case, it’s no exception.
Erin and I ask ourselves how these past 6 months could have flown by, and then we realized that we have posted 34 episodes since the beginning of the year! Not to mention we celebrated our 900th episode in January with friends of the show Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. 900 episodes?!? I think it’s safe to say you’ll have something to listen to while you do your dishes for the rest of your life. You’re welcome.
We started the year off with a trip to the Sundance Film Festival for its final year in Park City, Utah, then followed that with a trip to Austin for SXSW. Some highlights of Sundance include a truly heartfelt conversation about the 1920s Harlem Renaissance with father/daughter filmmakers of the documentary Once Upon a Time in Harlem, and return guest Cristina Costantini and her husband/producing partner Alfie Koetter joined us for a good cry fest as we discussed their short film La tierra del valor (in short, FUCK ICE). Coming from The Bay, another important documentary for us to cover was Ghost in the Machine, an urgent film about the untold racist/sexist/dark origins of artificial intelligence and where we go from here. Then we capped it off on the red carpet with the one and only Billie Jean King! At SXSW we reunited us with friend of the show and comedian Frankie Quinones for his film Plantman and Blondie: a Dress Up Gang Film, and dove into the Chinese American diaspora with director Vera Miao and star Kelly Marie Tran of Rock Springs.
Hey! Visit our friends at Standard Deviant Brewing in San Francisco. They’ve got two locations - the original on 14th Street in the Mission and their newest spot at Pier 70. Standard Deviant has the coldest tasting beers in the City and they’ll be celebrating their 10th anniversary on July 30th at their Mission brewery. They’re always family friendly and have food pop-ups every day of the week.
Take a Muni line, give the fine folks there a high-five, and let them know Bitch Talk sent you.
In between film festivals, we recorded live at one of our favorite events, the 8th annual Standard Deviant Chili Cookoff, where the best parts of San Francisco come alive and remind us why we’re still here. In honor of AANHPI month, we have an inspiring episode from our time at Pinayista, an annual conference of Filipino women entrepreneurs and solopreneurs with a mission of building sisterhood in the hustle. Most recently, we hosted two post back-to-back screening Q&A’s with Bay Area icon and director/writer of I Love Boosters — Boots Riley and just released an interview with him where he starts off by saying that Prince saved him. What. And, back in May, Erin hosted one of our favorite return guests, Jeff Hiller at a live KALW radio event — I think it’s safe to say we’ve been making the most of our time this year, and we also need a nap.
And now for our most exciting update: Bitch Talk is celebrating its 13th anniversary this summer! For perspective, when Bitch Talk Podcast first started, Obama was president, Fruitvale Station came out in theaters, and after a nine-year battle, marriage equality won in California. It’s safe to say those were simpler times, although I’m sure back then it didn’t feel that way to us. But while the last 13 years have brought us a roller coaster of unexpected twists and turns, the one thing that has felt the same after all this time is how much Erin and I LOVE making this show. There’s no way it would have lasted this long if we didn’t. And we hope our commitment to bringing you conversations about things that are rarely (if ever) talked about is felt. And the fact that after all these years, Erin and I are still often the only (middle aged) AAPI women on the red carpets, or in press junkets? It’s about damn time.
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Until next time, y’all……
