I don't know if you know this

I had a boss back in college at one of the theatres I worked at who had a horrible habit of saying two really stupid things all the time. He said both with such regularity it sort of negated the fact that he was generally a nice human being. We worked with the theatre donors so when they would call and ask for something he would often reply, "I'll get my gal, Erin, on that." or some variation of  "my gal, Erin" will help you. I'm sure this had less to do with me and more to do with his own confidence level in dealing with rich people, but it still annoyed me. I told him so and eventually, he stopped...at least when I was in the room.

He also had a habit of starting sentences with "I don't know if you know this" and then proceeding to tell me or whoever else something that we obviously knew. I would love to believe he meant this in a helpful way, but honestly, when has starting a sentence with "I don't know if you know this" ever been a good idea? Every time this phrase is used in a sentence, my mind immediately says "This person is an asshole. Stop listening and do something better with your time." It's the phrase equivalent of men explaining things to me except that everyone does this. It's a phrase that inspires Hulk-level rage.

Interestingly, this phrase kept coming back to me over and over again last weekend and throughout this week as I listened to the news and started preparing for a workshop on public speaking I'm delivering this month. Part of the workshop covers transitional phrases and words that might discredit you as a speaker (think "just" and "I think"). "I don't know if you know this" would definitely fall into the latter category. There's also a section on tone of voice which got me thinking, are there any instances when "I don't know if you know this" is an acceptable phrase to include in a conversation? Could there be a way to say this and not come off as a complete jerk? I thought (or overthought) about this over the week and came up with five possible times in which "I don't know if you know this" is acceptable. I started with three and was able, over the course of the week, to add two more. I feel accomplished. I like it when I can add to a list.

1. The School House Rock: "I don't know if you know this, but Twitter is not the law of the land." This use of the phrase could be helpful when addressing anyone involved in the current administration or supporters of said administration's policies when "policies" and "laws" get announced on Twitter. A related use would be "I don't know if you know, but the Constitution is the law of the land. Simply tweeting out a policy on Twitter doesn't make it a law. That's not how it works." You could continue with a discussion of how local and state laws are made. If you're feeling really fun and carefree, go ahead and belt out "I'm Just a Bill" to help reinforce the learning.
2. The Julia Sugarbaker: "I don't know if you this, but your dress is stuck in your pantyhose." Designing Women was a gift to this world. If you didn't grow up in the late 1980s when this show originally began airing, you should do yourself a favor and find it on Lifetime so you can watch it in all its 1980s Southern lady glory. Julia Sugarbaker was played by the wonderful Dixie Carter. Julia owned an interior design firm staffed by her sister Suzanne (Delta Burke), Mary Jo (Annie Potts), Charlene (Jean Smart), and Anthony (Meshach Taylor). Julia was the epitome of classy Atlanta lady and was famous for her cutting remarks, impeccable taste, and loyalty. Julia would rock "I don't know if you know this" in both a helpful way (letting a woman know her backside is showing in public) and in a cutting but always graceful way as displayed in my all-time favorite Julia Sugarbaker moment of the show the episode, "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia." Her dressing down of the current Miss Georgia is a master class of how to use this phrase in a way that is both classy and catty. It is genius. 
3. The Geography/Civics Teacher: "I don't know if you know this, but Puerto Rico is a US territory. More Americans live in Puerto Rico than 21 US states." Hurricane Maria has caused absolute devastation in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Watching the aftermath of all of the recent hurricanes has taken me back to Katrina and it's rough. Even worse, is the absolute lack of concern the 45 has shown for the people of Puerto Rico which is a US territory and most of its residents are US citizens. From the slow response to the insane comments about how "great" the relief efforts are going, he has done everything imaginable to make this situation worse. This shouldn't be about politics, but it clearly is. This is a clearly a president who doesn't know what he's doing and has a visible dislike of people of color. You can argue this with me if you want, but you won't win. If you can help in any of the relief efforts, please do. 
4. The Teacher at the End of a Quarter: "I don't know if you know this, but we're out of bacon, chocolate and wine." This particular use of the phrase was inspired by one of teacher friends who reminded me how awful the end of a quarter or testing period can be. I remember my first year teaching and how stressed I was trying to get everything done. I think I subsisted on Cheez-its, wine, and cereal because I couldn't bring myself to go to the store and my budget didn't allow for takeout every day. The use of this version of "I don't know if you know this" is particularly useful if you're married or have a significant other or roommate who will remedy the lack of bacon, chocolate, and wine. I guess you could order all of those things online, but it feels better when someone does something nice for you. Be nice to teachers and treat them well.
5. The Drinking Wine is More Fun: "I don't know if you know this, but you can drink wine and save the corks for art projects." I was at Target this morning buying cleaning supplies and a bag of mellowcreme pumpkins when I stumbled upon a box of wine corks to use for decorative purposes. Honestly, why would you buy a box of wine corks? I get it, it takes a long time to save enough wine corks to make most art projects. I look at this as a delightful challenge not a reason to go to Target and spend $10 on a box of corks. I'd rather invest that $10 in a bottle of wine. "But Erin, I don't drink." Then you shouldn't be using wine corks for decorative purposes. Find something else to use like pipe cleaners and mason jars.

I don't know, maybe these still make me sound like an asshole. What I do know is that I now have my new life mantra figured out: When in doubt, channel Julia Sugarbaker.

DC Days: The Dinner Party

"Feminist practice means everyone's voice deserves to be heard." 

-Judy Chicago, Fresh Talk at the National Museum of Women in the Arts

September 17, 2017

One of the first artists I got to meet when I first started volunteering at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) was Judy Chicago. Three years ago, we had a small exhibition of her work to celebrate her 75th birthday. She came to the museum to give a talk, which I attended. She and her husband were walking around the main galleries before the talk and I happened to ride in the elevator with them to the performance hall. We said hello and she asked if I worked at the museum. I shared I was in docent training and she told me to enjoy it. The talk she gave, in conversation with Jane Gerhard, was fun, feisty, and feminist. It was a great reminder of why the museum was founded and why women need a place where their work is championed.

Wilhelmina Holladay co-founded NMWA with her husband, Wallace, after they began collecting work by women artists. They were interested in discovering these artists, many of whom had been neglected by art history texts and in some cases, lost to history. Like Judy Chicago's iconic work The Dinner Party, the Holladay's were interested in combating the erasure of women artists from history. The current collection spans work from as early as 1580 and includes many living/working artists from today. I've volunteered at a few other museums in DC and volunteering at NMWA has been the most satisfying volunteer experience I've ever had. Every time I walk through the museum or lead a tour or participate in an event like this weekend's Fresh Talk, I feel like I'm part of something and helping our visitors connect to these works and artists.

I've felt, over the last year and half (or so), that NMWA has been a saving grace of sorts for me. No matter what was going on at work or in my personal life, I could go to the museum for my shift a few times a month and leave everything else behind. It's a little community, from the other docents and volunteers to the staff and guards to our visitors. I get to talk about awesome artists and spend time talking with visitors about their experiences in the museum.

Beyond my experiences with visitors, my favorite part of volunteering is those times when I do get to meet artists. We host a large number of events throughout the year where artists are present to talk about their work and interact with our visitors. I try to attend as many of them as possible not just because meeting artists is one of those things I never thought I'd get to do, but because hearing them talk about their art helps me be a better docent. I can elements from their talks to my tours and really bring art life in a way I wouldn't be able to do without those stories. 

I had the opportunity to see Judy Chicago again this past weekend at NMWA during the first Fresh Talk of this season. Fresh Talk is a part of the Women, Arts, and Social Change program that looks at women and the arts as catalysts for change. The program launched in 2015 and includes curated artists' talks along with either a Sunday Supper or Catalyst happy hour which enables the audience to continue the conversation after the program itself. I've been to two Fresh Talks and have loved the experience both times. One of the cool things about Fresh Talk is that the programs are live-streamed and the videos are available online for later viewing. I attended "Who are the new superwomen of the universe?" in June and had a blast. 

Chicago's talk was entitled "Amplify" and focused on how art can amplify women's voices and visibility. Her career has always focused on this idea, whether it be through her teaching, her dedication to feminist theory in art, or her actual promotion of "lost" women in history through The Dinner Party. In addition to talking about how her work has evolved from the 1960s, she also shared plans for a new visual archive and partnership between NMWA, the Schlesinger Library (at Harvard), and Penn State to create a new way to view her work and preserve her legacy. It's an exciting project and one that will ensure that Judy Chicago's work is not erased. 

What I loved about this particular talk was seeing the breadth of Chicago's work at one time. Alison Gass joined Chicago for conversation. Gass is the director of the University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art. She shared at the start of the program that she was an intern at the Brooklyn Museum when The Dinner Party was being installed and that Chicago's work had helped to shape her own art practice. Judy took us through her work, talking about learning new techniques like china painting, auto body painting (she went to auto body school in the mid-1960s), and glass work for newer exhibitions. Her dedication to learning is part of her art practice, from the techniques to the history and narrative she creates. She spent time researching the women included in The Dinner Party just as she would later do the same deep research on the Holocaust for her series The Holocaust Project: From Darkness Into Light (1985-1993). She talked a lot about how we move through history where there are times when we push back and erase one group or another. "We're in another moment of pushing back and erasure." It's our role to fight that erasure.

I appreciate her focus on learning as part of her practice. She's constantly learning; that's something that I try to bring to my tours, my own art (mostly writing), and my professional life. There's no magic formula for creativity or producing art except to get up and do it. That's what she does every day. It's these moments that make my time at the museum so important. It helps bring my own passion and creativity back. 

As I sat at Sunday Supper, I had a wonderful conversation with the woman sitting next to me. She had recently moved back to the DC area after a fairly long time away and has been spending the last year "experiencing" DC again. She came to the event for Judy Chicago but was intrigued by the dinner part. We talked about writing (she's a writer), the museum, and Wonder Woman. It was the perfect evening of women, art, and social change. 

If you're looking for a way to engage more and feel like you're not drowning in the spiral of hate and stupid that seems to be the way of the world these days, do yourself a favor and catch a Fresh Talk this season.

The Island Book Club: Vacation in Derry, ME...No really. It's fine. Nothing weird ever happens here.

Please note: The Island Book Club is not a thing. Once a book club is established people will want to read about sparkly vampires and abusive relationships dressed up as steamy sexy times and allegorical nonsense that makes me want to gouge out my eyes with a pencil. Nope, not a real thing. However, I love book recommendations, so please share in the comments.

I grew up on a steady reading diet of Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, The Baby-Sitters Club, Christopher Pike, classics, and Stephen King. When I was ten, I read both Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and Carrie within a month or so of one another. If you're not familiar with these books, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is Blume's beloved novel about a 6th grader, Margaret, who is navigating middle school, experiencing her first crush, and dealing with the inevitability of being female, namely developing breasts and having to get her first bra and getting her period for the first time. Carrie is the story of  teenage girl raised by a frighteningly religious mother whose telekinetic powers are brought on by the start of her period during gym class. She's tormented by most of the kids in school, including having pig's blood dumped on her at prom. She gets her revenge by blowing everything up and killing everyone...with her mind. Periods are no fucking joke. Judy Blume and Stephen King both understand this.

I had no business reading Carrie as a ten year old but I did anyway. I did an informal poll on Facebook this week to see if other people read "age inappropriate" books as children. I feel so much better knowing that many of my friends were right there with me, reading Stephen King, Judy Blume, Toni Morrison, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Alice Walker well before we maybe should have. It's like when all the older girls at school passed around Forever...(another Judy Blume classic); we want to know what's going on over there. Both my older brother and my Grandma G were into horror fiction, most notably Stephen King and Anne Rice. I had a readily available stash of books at home and in Detroit when visiting so I started reading. Neither of them discouraged me but I wouldn't say they encouraged me either. Unless you count that time I stood in line at an Anne Rice book signing for both me and my grandma; that might have been a bit encouraging. Anyway, I love Margaret and Carrie equally and am glad I read them at the same time. They fit together in a way that was in no way intended by the authors. They're weird bookends on my pre-teen life.

I didn't really get into Stephen King novels until a year or two later when I picked up Christine and IT from among the books my brother left behind when he left for college. IT is my third favorite King novel after Carrie and The Stand. When I first read IT, it was the longest book I had ever read. It clocks in at just under 1100 pages in paperback form. It was also the most terrifying thing, book or movie, I had ever experienced.

IT takes place in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, arguably the worst place to live ever. Derry shows up in a handful of other novels and short stories but is the focus of IT. Derry is as much of a character as the members of the Losers Club and Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The story is about a group of seven friends who come together in the summer of 1958 to battle the evil that has taken over their town and killed a bunch of children, including the sibling of one of the Losers. The story moves between that summer, the present (1985), and several interludes of Derry history as told by the one of the narrators, another Loser named Mike Hanlon. The seven friends return to Derry as adults to do battle with IT again. What they discover is that IT has always been a part of Derry and that the killings will continue on a cycle if they can't stop IT once and for all.

A lot happens in this novel. IT most often takes the form of Pennywise, the world's creepiest clown. Think what would happen if Bozo the Clown and the John Wayne Gacy had a baby. That would be Pennywise. What makes IT more terrifying, is that it appears as whatever the person it's stalking fears most. During the course of the novel, we see IT through the eyes of the Losers as a mummy, a leper, a wolfman, an old crone, a giant bird, and a statue of Paul Bunyon come to life. In the form of Pennywise, IT makes other terrible things happen, like blood dripping from photos, fortune cookies with unfortunate surprises, and the fact that most adults turn the other way when anything terrible happens. They can't see the evil of IT although they can be taken over by it as evidenced by Bev's father and several other adults throughout the past and present.

I decided to reread the book in anticipation of the new film version coming out this week. I saw IT last night (more on this shortly) and was not disappointed. I didn't finish the novel before I saw the movie as I had intended; I'm about 200 pages from the end. What this rereading has made me realize is that I forgot a lot of things that happen in this story. Since the novel was published, it was made into a 1990 television miniseries starring Tim Curry as Pennywise. This is probably the reference point I have for IT. The miniseries is good; it's a mostly faithful adaptation of the novel. It gets about as close as it can given that it was on network tv (imagine what it would have been had FX or Netflix been around). In addition to Curry, the cast included John Ritter (in his sexy facial hair phase), Annette O'Toole, Harry Anderson (my favorite tv judge), Tim Reid (my favorite from WKRP in Cincinnati), and Richard Thomas (yes, from The Waltons) as Bill, the leader of the Losers. The kid cast included Jonathan Brandis and Seth Green. Tim Curry is, by far, the best part of the miniseries (I'm sorry everyone else). His Pennywise the Clown is campy and scary and evil; exactly what you want Pennywise to be. A lesser actor would have made Pennywise a joke.

The miniseries stayed faithful to the back and forth between the past and present that makes the book such a powerful story. Stephen King is a gifted storyteller and one of his talents is layering narratives within his novels. In a novel like IT, the history of Derry is hugely important for the children to understand in order to do battle with IT. They uncover the 27 year cycle by tracing old events like deadly explosions, fires, and shoot outs in the town. Mike Hanlon becomes the town librarian, staying in Derry to be the keeper of the history and the watcher. He calls them all back to fulfill the promise they made as children. The rest of them have forgotten what happened that summer; that's the genius of both the novel and the miniseries. We get to watch the six of them remember. We journey with them as they realize what happened and what they're facing again. In the miniseries, it's a little over the top and tv movie of the week but it's still powerful and shows what a capable storyteller King is.

This is the one thing I missed in the new film. Rather than trying to cram everything into one film, director Andy Muschietti has divided it into two chapters. Chapter One, out now, focuses on the Losers Club as children only. Many of the iconic scenes from those chapters are here: Ben being bullied by Henry Bowers and his cronies, Beverly and the bloody sink, the postcard, the rock fight, the movie theatre scene. They're all here but the nuances of the back and forth story telling is missing. I understand why this is and I applaud the filmmakers for making the decision to break it into two films. Normally, I'm against movies being made into two parts for no reason but it works here (I'm looking at you, Peter Jackson and the later Hunger Games films). IT would be disappointing if it was all crammed into one movie. This part of the movie is now set in the late 1980s, which works well for the story. The young cast is awesome; I enjoyed all of them. My favorites are Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie and Finn Wolfhard (from Stranger Things) as Richie. Grazer's Eddie is a 12 year old version of an old man and he is so good at this. Wolfhard is playing opposite of his Stranger Things character and it's nice to see his comic side as Richie, the loud mouth of the group. Sophia Lillis as Beverly steals the movie from the boys; she's the right mix of tough and vulnerable and pre-teen girl. She and Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) have a running joke about New Kids on the Block that is both hilarious and unexpected. And yes, she does look like Molly Ringwald.

That's what I enjoyed most about the new film; there's humor and horror. At the end of the day, these are children who are doing something way beyond their years. It's nice to see the magic of youth and childhood friendship in this version of the film; I always felt that was lacking in the miniseries. They just do things there whereas here, we see the sides of friendship throughout the story. One of the things I didn't remember about the novel was the part where they all fight about taking on IT. Fighting with a friend is the worst without the added drama of an evil menace killing everyone.  Friendship, especially when you're young, is about the fun times and the terrible times. Your friends are the ones that stay with you through it all. The film captures that conflict and that truth so perfectly.

And really, that's the power of Stephen King.When you strip away all the gore and scary creatures and sex, his stories are about relationships and the human condition. He captures the magic of childhood and contrasts it beautifully against the harsh reality of adulthood. Our deepest fears manifest as a creepy clown or a leper in an abandoned house. An entire town is both part of and oblivious to a dark evil within. Our relationships protect us and get us through.

Just as long as we never, ever have to go to Derry.
Pennywise image
Miniseries kids
New cast

Lazy Movie Weekend: Let's Get Ready to Rumble

I've been helping my parents clean and organize their basement. I started this project back in June when I was still in the middle of my job search. I needed a distraction/to occupy my time; my parents needed the manual labor. Win-win if you ask me.

My parents' basement is 45 years (how long they've been married) of stuff. We've moved eight times (at least) and there are some boxes that probably haven't been opened since we lived in Virginia the first time (1992-98). This project is one part attempt to organize and reduce the stuff in the basement and one part amazing trip down memory lane. Every box my brother and I open contains some fragment of our lives - toys, family photos, every uniform my father ever owned, my mother's wedding gown, dishes we haven't used since 1987 (I'm looking at you, wooden salad bowl). It's nostalgia overload. Yesterday, we finally found the box containing the missing Star Wars weapons and a box of tickets from my brother's high school/college years including the ticket to the first show he went to by himself (Cutting Crew) and proof that he has been to all of the baseball games. We also opened the box my mother's wedding dress was in; sadly it's yellowed with age, but we were able to answer the question of what happened to her veil (it was under the dress). She thought she lost it; my grandmother must have had it all along.

What does any of this have to do with the Netflix series GLOW? On the surface, nothing. However, if you dig a bit more, more than you think. GLOW is, like Stranger Things, a show that plays to the best part of our desire for nostalgia and the heady days of the distant past. I will do my best to avoid spoilers for the remainder of this post but seriously, stop re-watching Angel, mostly because it's terrible, and get your wrestling on with GLOW.

The Netflix series is loosely based on the show, GLOW: The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, that ran from 1986-1992. The original series was created by David B. McLane a wrestling promoter and announcer who saw something beyond T&A when the rare female wrestler made an appearance on the wrestling shows of the day...enjoyment. Crowds tended to like these women but promoters and owners saw the women as novelties and didn't want to waste money on a show or event solely focused on women. So McLane did what anyone would do; he moved to Hollywood, found a backer, and put out an open call for women to audition for the show.

The open call mainly attracted out of work actresses and dancers with little or no wrestling experience. Eventually, McLane and show director Matt Cimber would cast everyone from clean-cut, girl next door types (Liberty, Babe the Farmer's Daughter, Tara Belle), rock and roll inspired characters, sad stereotypes (Palestina, Big Bad Mama, Matilda the Hun), and oddball characters like Mt. Fiji and Colonel Ninotchka. They enlisted Cynthia Peretti (a WWA wrestler) and Armando Guerro to train the cast. The whole operation moved to Vegas and lived in a hotel and GLOW: The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was born. What eventually emerges is a campy and highly entertaining women-centric wrestling show. There were rivalries (the Good Girls and the Bad Girls being one that ran through the whole series), a rap song for every character, special effects, and actual athleticism despite only a handful of real athletes in the cast. The women were popular and the show was a success, garnering higher ratings that the WWF's show Superstars.

Before diving into the Netflix series, I recommend watching the 2011 documentary about the original show, GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. It's a great look at the show and the women who made it the success it was. The documentary provides background that helps fill in some of the gaps of the series. The series isn't a straight up remake nor is it a homage; it uses the original show as a launching point. What I enjoyed about the documentary was the way the women talk about one another and the experience of being a part of GLOW, almost like it's a sorority. The show had a huge impact on all of them and many remember it as a high point in their lives. One of my favorites from the original cast is Emily Dole (Mt. Fiji). She is the heart of GLOW and I loved listening to her memories. It's also super fun to spend time with Dee Booher (aka Matilda the Hun/Queen Kong), one of the only actual wrestlers to appear on the show. Her perspective on early wrestling helps round out the story.

The Netflix series came about because the current owner of GLOW, Ursula Hayden (who wrestled on the original series as Babe the Farmer's Daughter), sold the rights to the show to Netflix. The series stars Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, and Marc Maron. It's the most 80s-tastic show I've watched since finishing the first season of Stranger Things. The fashion is amazing as are the bangs and glitter makeup. The music is fun and fitting, and the political/social themes of this period are oddly impactful give our current climate. I'm thinking specifically of the first tag team match we see and the Liberty Belle v. Zoya the Destroya match more broadly. The show is fun but also deals with some serious topics, particularly around racial stereotypes, abortion, and 80s era feminism. At the end of the day, the word that comes to mind about GLOW is charming. The show is charming. Because it's not set today, there's no hipster nonsense or need to be so freaking clever about every thing. We can simply enjoy a show about lady wrestlers. If you watched the original show, cool. If you didn't, welcome to the party.

Most of the charm comes from the the cast. I love Marc Maron and would have watched the whole series because of him even if it had been terrible (thankfully not the case). Maron's Sam is a stand-in for Matt Cimber, the original director. He's a B/C movie director who also happens to be an addict and a womanizer. Despite or maybe because of these things, I love Sam. Maron steals every scene he's in and can best be summed up by this line:

Remember Short Attention Span Theater and the heady days of mid-1990s stand-up comedy? That's when my love affair with Marc Maron began. I've since followed him through acting gigs (the promoter in Almost Famous, random movies where I'm like, "hey, was that Marc Maron?", and of course the wonderful Maron). I'm not a podcast person but I occasionally listen to "WTF with Marc Maron" because it's entertaining and sometimes very emotional; I appreciate that about him. He has cats and occasionally posts funny/awesome photos of them on Instagram. In his book, Attempting Normal, he talks about the cats and also relays the story of when he bought new jeans at a Levi's store and the clerk told him to get in the bathtub wearing his jeans to really break them in. I think of this particular anecdote often because it's the exact hipster nonsense that I cannot deal with even if it means I get better coffee and can buy fancy cheese whenever I want (these things are all related).

But I digress.

Let's talk about the actual gorgeous ladies of wrestling. My two favorites are Cherry (played by Sydelle Noel) and Carmen (Britney Young) who becomes Machu Picchu. They're both fun to watch and add elements to the show that would be lacking without them. Cherry is a former B-movie actress (think Pam Grier in Foxy Brown) who becomes Sam's right-hand woman as the show trainer. Of course, they have a past which makes their scenes together even better. She provides the order this chaotic scheme needs. Carmen is one of the younger cast member who happens to be part of a wrestling family. Her father doesn't want her to wrestle but she does anyway, coming into her own. I hope there's more of both of them in season two.

Then there's Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin. The series opens with them as friends, both actresses at various stages of their careers. Gilpin's Debbie is a "retired" (because she got married and had a kid) soap opera actress and Brie's Ruth is a struggling actress, going out on any and every audition. She's also every pretentious actor friend you've ever had (trust me on this if you have no actor friends). Season one is really about these two characters and their journey from friends to enemies to the ring. I totally agree with Sam on the Mark situation/attraction; I don't get it but I'll let you decide on that one on your own. I'm not a huge Alison Brie fan but I do enjoy her in GLOW. Maybe it's because she's playing a pretentious actress and her being annoying is part of her charm on the show.

The rest of the ladies include gems like Kate Nash as Rhonda/Britannica, Kia Stevens as Tamme/Welfare Queen, Sunita Mani as Arthie/Beirut, and Britt Baron as Justine, who is on the show for a very specific reason (I won't spoil it for you). There's also Chris Lowell as Sebastian (Bash), the money behind the operation. He's a fun addition to this motley crew with his weird houseboy, robot butler, and expansive costume closet. His existence also gives us an appearance by Elizabeth Perkins as his society mother. The episode where the GLOW ladies crash her party is one of my favorites and it's exactly what Nancy Reagan would want in a fundraiser.

GLOW is a great show. It's hilarious, empowering, and nostalgic. I hope the second season will include more of the secondary cast, particularly Sheila the She-Wolf, Arthie, and Carmen. Will the show move to Vegas? Let's hope so. Will we get to see more matches? We better. Will Ruth and Sam become a thing? I don't really need that to happen but it'd be fine if it did. Will Debbie leave her husband? If she's smart, then yes. At the end of the day, GLOW is a lot of fun. We can argue for days about whether wrestling is real or not but to be honest, who cares? Just sit back and enjoy the gorgeous ladies of wrestling.

Coming soon to the Island: I'll do everything wrong when it comes to meal planning, we go back to Derry and meet a new terrifying Pennywise, and we'll do a check in on my new work life goals. 

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GLOW Netflix cast
GLOW original cast