#cwf

[userhangmanpage]

Then ➝ Now

[forsapphics]

CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS (2022)

E01: Episode 1 — directed by Lenny Abrahamson and written by Alice Birch

[jakeperalta]

@giftober 2024 | day 7: helping ➛ conversations with friends (episode nine)

[luxurysystems]

Suitwatch 84'

[taminoe]

JOE ALWYN AS NICK CONWAY (CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS S01E02)

[blizzardsuplex]

As I look around, they don't do it like my clique Clique, clique, clique, clique And all these bad bitches, man They want the, they want the, they want the—

The Dojo Bros + their obnoxiously pink shirts from CWF/PWX's PWI Night Of Champions, 02/22/2013

[Of course this was their entrance song. Tagging @mobiblackout, @coquinaclutch, @btybbcedes, @christiancagesupporter, and pink shirt enthusiast @sadiesm <3]

[zancorvid]

Cosplay Wrestling Federation (Night 2) @ Fanime 2025 (Sun 05/25)

[thousand-page-dreams]

I love the scene in episode 7 of Conversations with Friends, where Francis tries on Nick's jacket. I've been enjoying the show so far, but it's the first scene that really drew me in. Pretty sure it's not in the book but it's been a few years since I read it.

A scene like this would normally strengthen the two characters bond, but I think it hints at a lot of underlying tension between them.

To try on someone's clothes is to be in their shoes, be in their world, be close to them.

Nick immediately tells Francis she can't keep his jacket. (The writers specifically choose the word keep, not have) He's not going to leave Melissa for her; Francis can't keep him.

Francis says she doesn't see Nick as a vulnerable person - which is interesting because she withholds from him as well. It's also the same flaw Bobbi finds with Francis and likely why they broke up.

She also comments that Nick doesn't care what other people think of him. Francis seems to be trying allude to her pain after seeing him with Melissa - and implying that he doesn't care. In the book, Francis is offen passive aggressive in her narration. I do wonder if she's trying to get under his skin a bit by some of her comments.

They do seem to have a sweet moment afterwards - Nick apologizes for being hard to read and he pulls her closer.

They share a laugh over both being cold and "not fun." However, Francis's cold nature is likely stemming from trauma. Nick has some underlying issues as well.

The scene ends with Nick saying she can't have his jacket - their affair is ending soon.

[littletroubledgrrrl]

[klucis]

Conversations with friends

I was going through old notes and found some thoughts I wrote down a year ago after reading and watching Conversations with friends. I don’t remember much of it now, but thought it might still be worthwhile to put these here in case someone stumbles across them and can relate

—————————————————————

I flew through Conversations with friends (the book) in about two evenings and apart from severe irritation at the absence of quotation marks, was fascinated with the characters and their relationships. Since then I have seen tons of people say they couldn’t sympathize with any of the characters and found them insufferable. I understand why, but to me this novel was never about personally relating to what was going on, rather the spectacle of it all.

Then we come to the TV adaptation… I don’t know quite how they managed it, but every single character was done wrong, and as a consequence every relationship felt wrong too. Now that is quite the ‘achievement’ if you ask me. It made me question whether I had misread something in the novel and how the characters came across.

Frances – plain-looking but confident, hiding deep insecurities behind a cool façade. Not this extremely awkward, shy thing like in the show. Don’t get me wrong, I was and often still am the extremely shy girl, which is how I know that this characterisation is not conducive to coming onto a married man. The book Frances was daring but cold as opposed to Bobbi who was a daring social butterfly. On the inside Frances wanted to be taken care of, while also actively trying to convince herself she could do everything on her own. It’s the brazenness of youth when your false sense of invincibility and/or superiority or uniqueness hasn’t been broken down yet.

Bobbi – in the book she was irresistible, which to me invoked a confident and very flirty person that deliberately oversteps some boundaries to ‘stir the pot’. Bobbi too used this persona to hide how uncertain about her future she felt inside. She didn’t let that show.

Melissa – in the book I imagined her to be very feminine and a ‘wifey’/artist type. Interesting and put-together, presenting as nice but has strong opinions, which you can see in her eyes. She cares about appearances and finds people who don’t hustle like herself to be a waste of her time. All that is very straining and exhausting to her and she worries how long she can go on like it, when will the moment come when she will inevitably fail.

Nick – a washed-up actor in short, but in that there is a memory of former success or at least excitement and drive – charm or energy he used to have when he first met Melissa and she found him a worthy addition to her life. Then a breaking point – depression, loss of whatever he had that was perceived as interesting and a slow but thorough belief that he doesn’t have it anymore. This was reinforced by Melissa’s affair and firm and obvious belief that Nick was now “pathetic”. Frances, I imagine, in part due to her youth and the way how she liked to disrupt, reminded him of how he used to be, who still saw him like that person or at least allowed for the possibility that he could still be that person. So their moments together was a space for Nick to practice being ‘ok’ and eventually ‘happy’ again.

Nick/Melissa – they used to have something great and they both recognize and value that something, no matter how fucked up things have become. By now it’s a memory at most. She thinks he is pathetic and is genuinely irked by his inability to move into adulthood without breaking down. Because in that state he reminds her of her own fear and how real the possibility of failure and despair truly is. At the same time, she knows it wasn’t always like that and that there is thus a possibility that it won’t always be like that. Nick wants to prove to Melissa that they can go back to whatever they had. That he is not pathetic. But on top of that he really resents her for kicking him when he was already down, for not giving him reassurance that he was going to get through it, for not looking at him as someone worth her time anymore. They keep up appearances. She does it because the fallout of a divorce and the societal failure associated with that does not work. He does it because he is too sad and lacks the energy to figure out what other options there might be. It’s easier to just go with the flow.

Nick/Frances – Melissa was supposedly the more interesting one out of Melissa/Nick, whereas Bobbi was the more interesting one out of Bobbi/Frances. Thus, naturally Nick and Frances already could relate to each other and understand each other’s experience from that perspective. Frances is also younger and prone to romanticizing the people around her, which was a welcome change for Nick whose closest person before Francis (i.e. Melissa) had described him as pathetic. She was a disruptor, a reminder of how he used to be and a hope that he might once again be happy and successful. Frances gets tangled in her own ‘act’, which causes many misunderstandings between the two. On some level the affair is another one of her cold bold acts much like her spoken word performances. Only she can’t really rise above her own feelings either, even if she ignores them.

[forsapphics]

CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS (2022) · S01, E12: Episode 12 — dir. Lenny Abrahamson

[grayblurcards]

The Yellow Dog (CWF)

2025 Wrestling Authentic Signature

[luxurysystems]

Taking down two men at the same time 😌

—Billy Jack Haynes and Mike Rotundo VS Cowboy Ron Bass and Black Bart (CWF July 21, 1984)

[princess-snow-wolf]

These were the non-Hetalia cosplay off the weekend, we did Haikyuu for CWF and Hellaverse for a night time panel. (The face paint was not worth it.) Honestly I wish we'd stayed in Prussia and UK outfits to go to the German sparkle party panel, but reading the schedule this year was super confusing.

[louvreribs]

[zancorvid]

Cosplay Wrestling Federation (Night 1) @ Fanime 2025 (Sat 05/24)