#emmy leavey

[isobelfree]

I’m working on revising my novel right now, and I found this one-shot I’d written from the perspective of Emmy, a character that my main character Julie shared a kiss with before retreating back into the closet. It’s the only scene I’ve ever written from a non-Julie perspective. You don’t really need context for it; I think it stands well on its own.

-

To date, I have fallen for eight straight girls, from Amy when I was thirteen to Tess last year, but it seems as if it’s the ninth that’ll really fuck me up.

There’s just something different about Julie.

I sit on the edge of her bed as she gets ready to go out; we’re planning on hitting up the new gay bar that just opened downtown, and despite my best efforts to convince her that she’s going a bit overboard, she’s convinced she’s got to look nice. “We haven’t gone out in forever, so I want to actually put some effort in, Emmy,” she says as she dusts blush over her cheeks.

“Who are you trying to impress?” I wonder out loud, looking down at my own outfit; I’m in a short-sleeved button down that I dug out of the back of my closet and my second-best pair of black jeans. (Not even my best! That’s how little I care!) “It’s a gay bar, there aren’t gonna be straight guys there.”

Julie shrugs. “Don’t you want to try and pick someone up tonight?”

“I don’t have to try, Jules. If I want to pick someone up, I will.” It’s true, really; you don’t need to try very hard to snag a desperate, horny baby gay at one of these joints. If I really wanted to, if my mind wasn’t otherwise, stubbornly, infuriatingly full of someone else, I could be between the thighs of a decently cute girl by midnight tonight, could be making her moan against my sheets and maybe even say my name, if she remembered it.

It’s not happening tonight, though. I know that much. Not with this girl refusing to leave my brain.

Julie snorts. “Not with that attitude. Or that shirt.”

“What’s wrong with this shirt?” I look down at the shirt, light blue with white polka dots.

Julie shrugs. “Nothing. It’s fine. I just know it’s not your best one. You’ve gotta dress to impress, my friend. And to do that, you gotta show yourself off a bit.” She runs her hands down over her waist to her hips in an exaggerated motion, and bursts out laughing as she finishes up her makeup. She really does look nice, in a long-sleeved dress that wraps and clings. I blush as I look at her and distract myself with my phone.

This is going to be a long night.

The plan is to meet the guys at their apartment. It’s a short walk to their place but Julie complains for about half the time about how much her feet hurt in her ridiculous heels. “Why did you even wear those?” I ask her, glancing down at my Converse – my newest pair (red instead of black). Much more sensible

“We’ve been over this,” she says, wincing with every step as the shoes dig into a blister on her heel. “I wanted to look nice.”

“Well, you don’t need dumb shoes to look nice,” I say. “You look nice anyway. Like, usually. Like you usually look nice.”

She quirks a smile at me. “Thanks, I guess,” she says, laughing a bit, breathy in the cool March air. I feel something buzz in my stomach, feel a warmth flood my face, something stupid and hopeful and easy to ignore.

We get to Dex and Cal’s fourteenth-floor apartment overlooking the train tracks (not the nicest locale, but their rent here is dirt-cheap). I knock on the door as Julie takes the heels off. “What?” she says to the eyebrow I raise at her. “I’m just taking a break!”

Cal opens the door, and he stares me down, and I stare him down, and it’s like we’re in some sort of Wild West-style standoff and whoever looks away first is the one to admit defeat.

“One of us is going to have to change,” I say finally.

Julie, beside me, is giggling uncontrollably.

Cal and I are wearing the exact same shirt.

“I can’t believe this,” I say as we walk in, shaking my head. “Where did you get this? Do we shop at the same places? Unacceptable.”

“Um, the American Eagle men’s section?” Cal says.

“How dare you!” I say. “You know that’s my favourite place to shop!”

“You can’t claim a whole store, Emmy! Especially when it’s the men’s section. If anyone should have the right to claim it, it should be me!”

“Oh, sorry, are we gendering clothing now? I thought everyone was free to wear whatever they wanted –

“Don’t blame me for gendering clothes, that’s American Eagle’s fault!”

“Guys!” Dex shouts, and we both cut off. “Neither of you are allowed to change, because this is the funniest thing that has happened to us since the Christmas party.”

“Hey!” I cry as all three of them start to laugh. “I thought we agreed to never talk about that again!”

“I’m sorry Em,” Julie says, breathy in between laughs. “But that stocking –”

“And the eggnog!” Cal giggles. “When she started singing and it came out all over –”

“Oh my god, and remember the candles?” Dex cries, and the laughter starts all over again.

“I hate all of you,” I say as I head out of the apartment and flip them off over my shoulder.

The bar is called New Science, which is a name we spend about four minutes trying to decipher before going inside. “What’s the old science?” Cal wonders as we stand there shivering, staring up at the neon sign, lit up in blue and green and orange.

“Maybe we aren’t supposed to know,” Julie says. She’s got a couple drinks in her already, and when Julie gets drunk she gets real philosophical. I mean, sober me can tell it’s all nonsense, but Drunk Emmy eats that shit up.

“You’re so right,” Dex says.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” I decide, heading inside and grabbing Julie’s hand to pull her with me, a motion that’s less necessary and more gratuitous than I’d like to admit. For a moment I focus on the feeling of her hand, fingers cold but palm warm where it touches mine, her skin soft and smelling like the lavender hand cream she uses. But it only lasts a moment, not much longer than a blink, and she pulls her hand away and laughs and calls out for me to come in before I have a chance to memorize her.

For the life of me, I cannot remember if this girl’s name is Catherine or Cassidy. Quite frankly, even knowing that it starts with a C-A is quite a feat for someone with as many beers in her stomach as me.

She’s cute in the vaguely-tomboyish, kind-of-pretentious way a lot of lesbians around here are when they first come out; she’s in a backwards snapback and a loose tank top, bites her lip a lot in a way she probably thinks is endearing. We’ve been dancing and making out for half an hour or so and the only things I’ve managed to learn about her are the first syllable of her name and her drink of choice (vodka cran). Oh, and that she likes to bite my lip as well as her own. That might be fun later, I guess.

Catherine/Cassidy is trying to tell me something, shouting over the pounding sound of the Chainsmokers, but I don’t hear her; I’m scanning the crowd for Julie, realizing that I’d lost track of her.

“Sorry,” I yell as I start pushing through the crowd, feeling sweaty skin and spandex stick to me as I make my way. It’s not a big place, but the flashing lights that spin make the room feel like it’s moving; I feel unmoored, like I can’t quite orient myself.

A hand on my arm makes me jump. I spin around to find Julie, holding an empty plastic cup. “There you are!” she cries. “I didn’t know where you went!”

“I was dancing with someone,” I say, looking back at where I left Catherine/Cassidy, but she’s lost in the sea of equally generic faces. “Didn’t quite get her name but I know it started with a C-A.”

“Was she cute?”

“Eh,” I shrug. “Wanna go and get some air?”

Julie nods and follows me to the side door of the place, which is propped open with someone’s shoe. I step out into the alley and hug my arms close to me. It smells like frost and cigarettes out here.

Julie sighs, kicking at a piece of gravel. “You were wrong about the straight guys,” she says. “There are lots of them here. But spoiler alert, they’re the exact same as they are in regular clubs.”

“Bummer,” I offer, leaning back against a dumpster.

She smiles and perches next to me. “You did try to tell me I wouldn’t find any winners here. Should’ve believed you.”

“Jules, when will you learn that you should always believe me?” I say, shaking my head.

She laughs and knocks her shoulder against mine. I look down at how close her hand is and sigh. It isn’t fair, and it doesn’t matter that it’s not fair, because plenty of things aren’t fair, and it doesn’t meant they wouldn’t be perfect.

I look up and see her face too close to mine; her breath smells like vodka, warm against my face. “Remember when we made out in the kitchen?” she says, low, almost a murmur. She’s grinning.

I blush because of course I remember, couldn’t possibly forget that sunny afternoon in our empty apartment if I tried; the memories are stubborn and stuck, not going anywhere. “Yeah, I remember,” I tell her, inching slightly away. “What about it?”

Julie shrugs. “I don’t know. Just reminiscing.” Her face is still close to mine, and she looks down at my lips, and it would be easier than breathing just to lean down and kiss her and taste the vodka on her mouth and for a moment everything would be perfect. But it isn’t perfect; we’re sitting on a dumpster in a cold alley and I’m a fucking pathetic shmuck and Julie is straight (or at least, she’s convinced herself that she is, and who am I to tell her she isn’t?).

So I sigh, long and shuddering, and slide down till my feet are solid on the cigarette-strewn ground. “Where are you going?” Julie asks me. She looks a bit more dishevelled now than she did when we left our place, lipstick half-rubbed off, but somehow in the weak moonlight of the alley she still looks perfect, and that’s the hardest part of all.

“Back inside,” I say, pulling open the heavy side door of the club. “Gonna try and find that girl.”

I find Catherine/Cassidy near the DJ booth, sipping another vodka cran and pouting to some tall skinny butch; she lights up when she sees me. I feel a brief twinge of guilt as I pull her back onto the dance floor, but it’s only brief, and I down a couple more beers to try and cover up the feeling. I try and lose myself completely in this girl, her scent of sweat and something minty, her hands warm on my face as we kiss, the music pulsing around us like a heartbeat. Later that night when she asks where we’ll go, I say her place, because I can’t be anywhere Julie is, otherwise the spell will be broken. And it works, because by the time I’m in this stranger’s bed, moonlight coming in through the small window of her basement apartment, I’m not thinking of Julie at all.

[fuckyeahwomenfilmdirectors]

Year in Review: The Most Notable News About Women Directors in 2017

Niki Caro is announced as the director of Mulan which has a budget of $100 million. This makes her the 6th woman to direct a live-action movie with a budget that large following Kathryn Bigelow, Lilly & Lana Wachowski , Patty Jenkins and Ava DuVernay.

The EEOC concludes a two year investigation into Hollywood’s hiring practices and officially confirms they found patterns of discrimination against women directors.

Ildikó Enyedi wins the Golden Bear at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival for her film On Body and Soul. This makes her the 5th woman (and 2nd Hungarian woman) to win top honours at the prestigious festival.

Stella Meghie’s Everything, Everything has a wide release across America in May. It is the first movie directed by a black woman to have a wide release since Selma directed by Ava DuVernay went into wide release in January of 2015. 

Sofia Coppola wins Best Director at the Cannes Film festival for The Beguiled making her only the 2nd woman ever after Yuliya Solntseva, and the first woman in 58 years to claim the directing prize.  

Wonder Woman has the biggest ever opening weekend for a film directed by a woman and becomes the highest grossing film directed by a woman (within the U.S). It also becomes the highest grossing film internationally directed by a woman directing solo. It also beats Spider Man (2002)’s record as the highest grossing superhero origin film.

Gina Prince-Bythewood is announced as the director of Silver & Black making her the 1st black woman, the 2nd woman of colour (after Lexi Alexander and the 4th woman (after Lexi Alexander, Patty Jenkins and Anna Boden) to direct a superhero movie.

Patty Jenkins is confirmed as the director of Wonder Woman 2 making her the first woman to direct two live-action films with budgets of $100 million or more solo. It also reportedly makes Jenkins the highest paid woman director in Hollywood. 

Reed Morano is the first woman in 22 years to win the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (the last recipient was director Mimi Leder). 

French director Agnès Varda receives an honorary Oscar becoming the first woman director to win this award. 

Pitch Perfect 3 becomes the 15th film directed by a woman to get a wide release in 2017. This is almost double the amount of wide releases directed by women in 2016, marks the first time wide releases by women hit double digits in the U.S. The 15 films:

Underworld 5, The Bye Bye Man, Before I Fall, Unforgettable, The Zookeeper’s Wife, Everything, Everything, Wonder Woman, Megan Leavey, Rough Night, Detroit, Home Again, Battle of the Sexes, Professor Marston & the Wonder Women, Lady Bird, Pitch Perfect 3

[paulwesleychronicles]

New Post has been published on Paul Wesley Chronicles

New Post has been published on http://paulwesleychronicles.com/petitioners-to-usda-make-animal-welfare-records-public-again/

Petitioners to USDA: Make animal welfare records public again

Emmy-nominated actress Kate Mara (“House of Cards,” “Megan Leavey”) and two key Congressional lawmakers joined The Humane Society of the United States, Care2 and Humane Society Legislative Fund in delivering close to 200,000 petition signatures to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, urging the agency to restore online records of inspections and violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act. Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally, R-Ariz., and Democrat Congressman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., called on USDA to reverse course and post thousands of documents removed from its searchable website.

In February, the USDA, without warning, purged from its website records concerning more than 9,000 licensed facilities that use animals, including puppy mills, roadside zoos, circuses, and animal research facilities. It also deleted from its site nearly all records relating to violations of the federal law to protect Tennessee walking horses and other breeds from an abusive practice known as soring. While certain documents relating to a selection of facilities have been reposted, most are still missing and of those reposted, specific information is difficult to find because documents are on various web pages and records are compiled in large PDF documents, rather than the previously searchable database.

Mara said: “Without these documents, organizations like The Humane Society of the United States will have a lot more trouble obtaining the information it needs in a timely fashion – to press for the enforcement of animal welfare standards. We as taxpayers pay for this agency to provide oversight over issues that Americans care deeply about. We are told to trust the agency to do their jobs and penalize those who abuse or violate the law. Eradicating these records indicates that the USDA has much to hide.”

Click here to read full press release.  

Sign Petition Here.