Shibden After Dark - A Gentleman Jack Podcast

We're queer, we're still here, we're just ready to be done with this year. Our break lasted a little longer than we planned, but nothing is going according to plan in 2020. Join us as we catch up on the good stuff, the bad stuff, the really bad stuff, and - as usual - the gay stuff. Stay safe out there, SAfD family!!

Marsha P. Johnson, Stormé DeLarverie. Sylvia Rivera. Just a few of the queer trailblazers that should be in every students' history books. This week as we weave through the lives of these incredible people and their long-lasting legacies, it's no surprise that we start off heartbroken and end up angry. JK Rowling ends up in the crossfire. Sorry not sorry, no TERFS allowed. Shibden After Dark also celebrates our one year anniversary!

It didn't feel right to not pause this week and seek out some media that intentionally featured black queer stories, and we couldn't help but land on a movie that broke so much ground: Moonlight. At this juncture in our history, it feels so important to us to elevate voices in black media, so join us as we talk about this movie that changed so much in a whitewashed Hollywood.

The Four-Faced Liar was supposed to be our focus this week, but it takes a back burner as we discuss the things we’re all experiencing this week. It may be Pride month, but it's time to take Pride in a different movement: that of our black brothers and sisters. We still manage to squeeze in some film chat, but our hearts and minds this week are with all those fighting to make black voices heard. Black Lives Matter.

We're back this week discussing Loving Annabelle in all its chain-smoking, prayer bead-wearing, hair-chopsticked glory. There's just one slight problem. Okay, one felony-sized problem. Join us as we break down boarding school, beach houses, boudoir photos, and touching your teacher's collarbones.

We're back mid-Quarantine to discuss the first movie in a long time that made us feel whole: The Half of It. Letters, love triangles, long underwear - we ate it all up like taco sausage. We had to suspend our disbelief just a bit but it was totally worth it to spend a few hours in Squahamish with Ellie Chu's crew.

We have a love/hate relationship with Carol. A high budget movie about lesbians with gorgeous actresses? Sign us up! A depressing story about the realities of the queer struggle? Ouch. Let’s navigate the struggles of Carol and Therese’s relationship, and by extension, the struggle a lot of us go through.

Do you Feel Good this week? Quarantine is still wreaking its havoc on everyone, but we take a break to find an oasis of feelings in Mae Martin's new Netflix show: Feel Good. Dating is hard, and finding true love can be even more difficult when you haven't really found yourself yet. Sometimes, though, you just need someone who will hold your hand.

This week we're going back to our roots with the women who started it all - Jill, Helena, Sally, & Suranne. We dissect some of the information we learned and fawn over some of the stories we heard at ALBW Live, and we take every opportunity to circle back to some of our own predictions now that Christmas 1834 is confirmed. We called it! Have we mentioned we called it?!

Throw caution to the wind and see what it's like to Kiss Jessica Stein this week as we explore a movie that's both heartwarming and problematic by turns. The most important lesson we learn here is that mom always knows what's going on, whether she really wants to know or not. As Jessica explores a different side of herself, we discuss what it's like to go on that journey ourselves and how to figure out what you want (what you really, really want) - spoiler alert: it isn't always just one perfect shade of lipstick.

We interrupt the podcast to bring you this breaking news. Much like everyone else on the planet, our lives have been materially interrupted and immeasurably impacted by the virus-which-shall-not-be-named. So whatever we had planned, we scrapped and went back to our roots: The media that continues to shape (save?) our lives and why movies, series, and games are good for our mental health. We will be back to regularly scheduled programming . . . whenever we can be.

If ever there were a time to curl up with a good old fashioned romantic comedy, surely now is the time. Saving Face is not only the nostalgic, feel-good flick we need these days, it's also a smart and cute AF film that brings up complicated issues about family relationships, expectations, and getting over those relationship humps. Bonus points for being totally, adorably gay.

What happens when you mix a notoriously mind-bending show with a lesbian VR plot twist, add in one part Gugu Mbatha-Raw and one part Mackenzie Davis, then a splash of 80's music and a dash of shoulder pads? IT'S A RECIPE FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH. This week we're fangirling over the Black Mirror episode, "San Junipero," so grab your Jack and Cokes, leave your side pieces at the Quagmire, and meet us at Tucker's.

The Favourite brings us Rachel Weisz in the hottest shooting outfit we've ever seen, and we're into it. This movie is showy, ridiculous, and out there, but it also brings us heavy themes of manipulation and using love to get ahead. What kind of manipulator are you?

The '90s were tough for everyone, only made tougher if your secret high school same-sex love affair was discovered and ended up with you getting sent to conversion camp. We've never really shied away from discussing our gay pain, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post brings up a lot for both of us. Let's get gritty with our stories and talk about the real fears associated with extremist religion, what it's like to hide as a gay person, to be betrayed by your lover, and of course...icebergs.

This week we're serving up Fried Green Tomatoes, and as you may have guessed, we count this film among our all-time faves. We know we're not the only ones out there with a longstanding soft spot in our hearts for Idgie and Ruth; we're not the only ones who wish we could sit with Ninny and listen to her stories; not the only ones who'd watch Evelyn Couch destroy that car in the parking lot while shouting "Towanda" over and over. So grab your plate of BBQ, your honey, your plastic wrap dress - whatever! - and join us as we break down our favorite tale of two friendships. Well, one friendship and one . . . nevermind, just join us!

How hot is Kate Mara? It turns out that she's extra hot when she's dancing to Mercy and involved in a complicated, modern-day Romeo and Juliet romance with Ellen Page. This week we're diving into My Days of Mercy, a gorgeous and complicated love story that almost dishes more than we can take, but not quite.

We're dishing 'Disobedience' this week and discussing why this film packs a gut punch almost as hard as Sally Wainwright. We'll chat about the chemistry between the two Rachels, the weirdness of having former friends feel like strangers. And the spit-sex, well, because it's us.

This week we're veering back into our list of favorite lesbian/queer films and television series with a discussion of the 2006 romcom (aka romantic comedy) "Imagine Me and You." This movie was the first hopeful film either of us saw way back when we were babygays, so it'll always have a special place in our hearts. Plus it gifted us with Lena Heady, long before her turn as Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones. The lily means: I dare you to watch this movie and not love it.

We're starting the new year with the topic that's on everyone's minds - SEX! Whether you're TeamAnn or TeamMariana, we can all agree that Gentleman Jack has caused a lot of thirst. So this week we jump back in and explore what representations of lesbian sex these days are getting right and wrong, what positions lead to the least amount of injuries, and what it is about Anne Lister that's igniting a spark in so many of our bedrooms.