Now & Then | 27
Show Notes:
Pop Culture Makes Me Jealous and To All the Men I've Tolerated Before team up to bring you Still Comfy? a show that examines pop culture properties and whether or not Julia Washington and Natalie Katona are still comfy with them.
In this episode they discuss the 1995 film Now & Then, which stars Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith, Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Wilson, Gabby Hoffman, Thora Burtch, Christina, Ricci, and Ashley Aston Moore.
This episode originally aired on YouTube Live on July 26, 2022.
Transcript:
Natalie: don't know if I'm proud of my people who married the nose pickers that we know from our youth, because you know how I feel about mediocre men?
Julia: I, well, I mean like, you know how every, every boy picks their nose, Natalie, you know, if they tell you they don't, they're lying.
Natalie: Like, I don't know. It should have been, it should have been about Roberta and Roberta and Chrissy.
Natalie: You know,
Julia: if they do decide to reboot it. I think that that could potentially be the storyline. Yeah. And it'd be nice to see some, I literally can't recall one single black person in this film.
Natalie: Yes. I would also make sure that there were people of color. Yeah. Yeah. And not just like the homeless guy that's uh, from the war.
Julia: Yeah. Like crazy pee. And the vet cannot be the black people.
Natalie: They can't be, they can't be the people of color.
Julia: You need to make one of those little girls, one of the black people.
Natalie: Yeah. Because, and she can't be renting her house. Like she has to own her house. Like they all own their house. Like, it can't be some tragic ass situation.
Natalie: Right, right. She can't be the one with a dead mom. She can't be the one with the dead beat dead. She has to be
Julia: Chrissy. Yeah. She has to be Chrissy because, you know, I realized that while I accepted white narratives in the nineties, mm-hmm , I am finding myself very frustrated with shows that could easily not have.
Julia: Not be centered around white characters. Right. But who, who run with a diverse group of people? Cause the show is still centered around whiteness when the male, when the main character is white. Yeah. And then you have the quirky ethnic friends. Like I thought grown
Natalie: past that. Yeah. No that makes me sad.
Natalie: Mm-hmm I'm looking at
Julia: you Maggie on Hulu.
Natalie: Oh, I haven't watched it yet. it's cute.
Julia: But it, again, she it's centered around this white girl. Yeah. And you know, all the characters around her are not white mm-hmm and all they're all quirky.
Natalie: I truly do miss the B plots and movies where we learn the most about the eccentric person in town.
Natalie: Mm-hmm mm-hmm like I miss that being the B
Julia: plot, you know, and I said it and I said it earlier and I'll restate it again. There's something very, there's something I wish they would bring back being committed to the one. Storyline. Yeah. And then you have maybe the sub the line
Natalie: B. Yeah. And just sticking with that.
Natalie: I miss us actually.
Julia: That's my top. Ben did so well because it was such a simple fucking movie. Yeah. I
Natalie: miss us getting to be invested in the town and the community that your show is set in. I'm looking at you Virgin river. Yeah. I didn't know that fucking Virgin river had a dojo until this goddamn season, because I don't know anything about the town Virgin river.
Natalie: Why? Well, it's not real. okay. Also. Well, we were a stars hollow, but I could probably draw a map of stars hollow.
Julia: Yeah. They did a really good job with stars. Hollow is a character in the, in the show.
Natalie: Absolutely. Yeah. And I miss that. I miss like knowing that crazy, Pete is the eccentric guy who was not a victim of a murder.
Natalie: Oh shit. Come on. I'm. I can't think of any more songs. There we go. Okay. Oh, I just saw one ticket to ride ticket to ride's another one. That's a great song
Julia: too, but you're right about Virgin river. Cuz how many times did we both go? Wait, this is this city's on a
river.
Natalie: where the hell did they? It's on a river.
Natalie: Where the hell did they get a dojo?
Julia: Why are they surrounded by a lake?
Natalie: when do you think it's appropriate for us to just get to bitch openly about season four in all of Virgin river?
Julia: Well, it's been out a full week starting
Natalie: tomorrow. Okay. So when do you think it's polite to give out spoilers and start reenacting me and Jack fights.
Julia: I mean after tomorrow, I feel like it's fair game. Do you wanna be Mel or do you
Natalie: wanna be Jack? Do you? I think I could do a really good Mel. I, I believe so. And then I will just look at you. Oh my night. And be like, I'm sorry. Did you think that that was a problem? And then you can just tell me, I didn't say it was a problem.
Natalie: I just say said it was something that I noticed. I can't, you feel bad. And then my hands can come up here and I'll be like, so is this something I'm fixing for our relationship or not?
Julia: God that show they're getting, did I tell you, I read an article somewhere that said they're getting a whole new show runner for season five.
Julia: Yes.
Natalie: So hopefully it's better. Maybe someone will commit to getting us through these first five months of Virgin room. cause in the timeline I'm convinced it's only been five months. Well,
Julia: cuz I mean think about it. You Shermaine was probably already like eight weeks when she found out she was pregnant.
Julia: Right. Twins don't ever make it to full term. Mm-hmm there's not enough
Natalie: room mm-hmm
Julia: so yeah, it's probably been five to six months, which leads me to the fuck. Are you doing four seasons? falling in love and also four seasons. First of all. And the fuck are you doing falling in love after six
Natalie: months, my sister is convinced that this show will never leave the first year and that Charma will always be pregnant because they don't actually wanna deal with having to deal with babies in plots.
Julia: I just can't like I told they don't wanna deal babies. I told you this over. Well, they don't. I mean, yeah, they, I told you this the other day when we were watching it together, I said, I miss the days when television seasons would end. And as we
Natalie: aged four months, mm-hmm so did the show
Julia: right, because then it's September now.
Julia: So we can all assume we're all in sixth grade now as opposed to this shit that picks up and younger did the same thing. Younger had seven seasons. And when you watch it straight through, you're like, okay, yeah, this is maybe a year and a half mm-hmm and younger land. Yeah. But when you spend seven seasons and you think why the fuck is Lizza so mad and like, scared about getting married to Charles I'll marry Charles and you remember it's been seven years yeah, exactly.
Julia: And then you remember, oh, technically in younger land, it's only been like a year since her divorce. I was
Natalie: with Eliza though. She don't have to get married just to like. again, abate a mediocre man's
Julia: ego. Listen. Yes. When you've been a person who's already spent time in a marriage with a trash partner. Yeah, totally get it.
Julia: I have been a single adult female, my entire adult life with a few stints with having boyfriends. Mm-hmm I would love someone to come in and take care of half the
Natalie: bills. I'm gonna take a picture just to post, uh, on another group. Let me make sure that, that says and now for the moral of the show
Natalie: okay. Oh no. Did you take it?
Julia: I'm still posting
Natalie: I'm not gonna get it exactly right. And that's what's irritating. should I just take a video for
Julia: this? I say she probably you a
Natalie: video. Yeah. You know, now I'm timing it.
Natalie: Because I have a Facebook group, that's really gonna love that. I'm gonna be like, we weren't even talking about Virgin river. It's just the moral of every show that I do. OMG, it's a trash show that wastes our time. Yeah. And you know what? I deserve compensation yeah. You know,
Julia: I just don't. I just, you know, it we've had this conversation.
Julia: Mm-hmm why the fuck can't I get a job? No, I've like my samples aren't bad. I thought
Natalie: I did the candy Virgin
Julia: river. I had a play debut, a one act play debut in 2019. I cannot tell you how many people who went to that play and then texted me and was like, there was like five other one acts. And they were like, yours was the best one.
Julia: So why can't I get a fucking job, Natalie? I
Natalie: don't know. Should I just start putting it on my blog.
Julia: Should I just start putting
Natalie: shit on my blog? You should start putting shit on your blog. Fuck. Do you know that Virgin river is based on books? Like people read these, the series of books.
Julia: I did know Virgin rivers based on books.
Julia: And so here's my thing because Humboldt county is like several hours north from here. It's like a coastal ish county in California. Mm-hmm so when they talk about how quickly they all run into Sacramento, I'm just like, have y'all never done that drive it's a bad drive. I don't think this person understands.
Julia: And then the other part of it too is like, oh, we're driving through and we're gonna, we're gonna stop in Portland. Do you understand how far Portland is from
Natalie: fucking humbled? A bad drive? Like,
Julia: is it seven hours or is it six from where I am? Mm-hmm in California, which is 90 miles south of Sacramento.
Julia: Mm-hmm to the border of Oregon. Yeah. Is a six hour drive.
Natalie: No, it's a trash show. It wastes our time. I want compensation Fortman
Julia: is a 12 hour drive. If I, if I drive straight through and don't stop,
Natalie: um, I'm going to start abandoning doing tos that are actually based on my podcast episodes. And I'm literally just gonna do bits where I say, this is what I deserve compensation for.
Natalie: I just, Steven Moffitt looking at you. Yeah. You owe me compensation twice for Dr. Who and time tra Traveler's wife, Traveler's wife,
Julia: witch cop fucking
Natalie: cancel. You couldn't even swindle them into season two. And yet somehow we're getting season two of just like, and just like that, make it make sense. and you know, and again, I, you and I both read the book.
Natalie: Yeah. I think we could have done a really good
Julia: adaptation. See, NA see, where was the, where was the book during our lives about the show Natalie? It was on that bookshelf one were there. Yeah. Yeah, it was, yeah, it was. So it's like, again, it's one of those things and Mindy Kaling actually pointed out on her Instagram.
Julia: Yeah. Maybe, or her Twitter years ago, she commented. She's like, I don't understand asking for writing samples of original works because when she was coming up or maybe it was in one of her books, because when she was coming up, they wanted you to write a spec script of whatever show it was you were trying to be on.
Julia: And to me that makes more sense because then you are actually demonstrating, you understand the characters and what the dialogue is that they would say and who they are, but it's
Natalie: also easy for them to steal your ideas for free. Well, and so steal
Julia: the fucking spec script. I wrote not the TV show. I hope is gonna win me an
Natalie: em.
Natalie: You know, here's for our final question. Okay. Now, and then still comfy. Yeah. Yeah.
Julia: And I really just didn't. I was like, man, I feel bad,
Natalie: but I'm still comfy with it. Why do you feel
Julia: bad? I don't know why, because there's no black people in it. but
Natalie: the soundtrack's so good and
the
Julia: soundtrack is really good, but you know what it was, what really like, why I think where the guilt comes from, because so much of the nineties mm-hmm of what I was allowed to watch was very white mm-hmm and same with like the world I was living in.
Julia: Yeah. So like, even though we were a mixed race family, like there, it was still a heavily, a heavy white influence in my life. And so there's a lot of stuff I'm learning in adulthood, especially about the eighties and nineties, um, black culture where I'm just like, man, we missed out on that as a family. And what it, what, how.
Julia: Much more confident in my racial identity. Would I have been, had I not been the outlier all the time. Right. And not constantly like forced to live in a predominantly white world. Yeah. And I think that's where that came from, because I saw myself in these girls. Mm-hmm I wanted to be these girls. I, should you not?
Julia: I used to ride my bike around the neighborhood with my feet up on the, um, handlebar like that.
Natalie: Yeah. Going I emulated.
Julia: Yeah. I emulated them so
Natalie: much. Yeah. It was a great movie. That movie fucking slaps. Mm-hmm I love also the reason I picked the picture that I did for the socials is because I love when you have kids and adults playing the same character and they take a really cute group picture like that a bit.
Natalie: That gets me every time. Yeah. And I
Julia: think they did a really good job at casting, the younger and the older. Oh, I was gonna tell you the girl that plays Chrissy died.
Julia: Yikes. Yeah, I was cuz I was looking, I was like, what has she been up to lately? Dead. Nothing. Um, she did. Yeah. She kind of had a, it not it from the way it reads online. It sounded like she kind of had a hard time. Well, you know, in
Natalie: life, does she have a great aunt that wants to morbidly tell us that story?
Julia: 26. She was 26. Oh God. Yeah.
Julia: And that made me sad. And then I thought, God, I don't know
Natalie: what happened to Sam little Sam. Oh, because Christina became Christina Richie. What is Gabby Hoffman do?
Julia: What isn't she doing? She was on girls. She's in, I didn't watch
Natalie: that shitty show girls. .
Julia: Okay. Well, I watched it because I wanted to live in New York and I am embarrassed by the fact that I watched it.
Julia: Cause that's
Natalie: fair. Lena makes me mad.
Julia: yeah, I think that she's an interesting person. Um, she has done a ton of stuff lately. She was in transparent, which ended in 2019
Natalie: watch transparent. I, I didn't watch transparent. Okay. All right. Well, but she
Julia: came up again for me in girls, cuz I did watch girls in, I think after it was all done in 2018 and I thought, oh good for you.
Julia: But she's, you know, she's consistently works like every couple of years,
Natalie: like I've never recognized her adult face.
Julia: You know what it is? It's because her adult face looks so different from her childhood face. Mm. Um, like. Brow is very strong and prominent, which I don't know if you get that from her when she's a kid.
Julia: If that makes
Natalie: sense. Oh, okay. This is bringing up sense memories.
Natalie: I'm gonna ask you a question offline. Okay. Um, we have a private chat. We do have
Julia: a private chant, but I feel like you should just tell me offline.
Natalie: Yep. Um, alright. I am also still comfy. I'm still comfy, even though they made teeny a sex symbol. like, I loved it. Mm-hmm I thought that that was like, that is the exact way that I too felt sexy at 13 years old.
Natalie: Like it's all just talk. It's all just me doing fake up makeup scenarios in my head. like bad makeup, bad makeup. Didn't
Julia: didn't I tell you, I was like, I voice memo do this. Right. I was like, ask me why I'm five minutes into this
Natalie: movie and I'm emotional. I'm emotional. Like I love this movie. You know what? At one point we will have to confront the comfort movie.
Natalie: That still makes me comfy, even though it's uncomfy, but you're just gonna have to stay tuned. um, Jules, introduce yourself first and then I'll do plugs.
Julia: Okay. Uh, as a reminder to all of our friends, watching on YouTube and potentially listening to the replay at some point in time, Julia Washington host of pop culture makes me jealous where we analyze pop culture through the lens of race or gender.
Julia: And sometimes both I am the creator producer and host of that show. Mm-hmm and it's pretty good. You can find it wherever you find your podcasts. We also have merch available. I am wearing our hay friends. T-shirt. I'm showing it off for people in the video, but if you're listening to the audio, you can't see
Natalie: it.
Julia: but there are links, but there are sure there are links. You can find me on Instagram at pop culture makes me jealous or at the Julia Washington, very accessible on the Instagram. Love talking about movies and television and pop culture. Um, on the podcast page on my page, I do book reviews and musings about being a solo parent and why it sucks being a millennial as capitalism falls
Natalie: and I of course am NA Catona your host of two, all the men I've tolerated before your Midwest Hollywood hot host of two, all the men I've tolerated before we drop.
Natalie: Episodes every Thursday, this Thursday is how the hell am I supposed to date? Could anyone tell me and last Thursday was the men that Wendy Cooper tolerated during her career. Um, in two weeks we will be on the pop culture. Makes us, makes me jealous. It should be us at this point. I don't know. Yeah. Why are you confusing me?
Natalie: pop culture makes me jealous. Um, for still comfy mama Mia, featuring Paige from for folks' sake. We're very excited. We're very excited. Um, another guys, another movie that I will get to sing the intro for it's Emma, everybody. Are we just picking movies that have soundtracks that I have memorized? I don't know.
Natalie: Maybe. I don't know. We have a Patreon. I'm designing me. If we get 25 members on the Patreon, I will make you cards with stickers and be your pen pal, everyone. I'm wildly like overwhelmed and loved to just keep he it on . Yeah. Yeah. Well, all right. This has been still comfy and you'll have to stay tuned until, oh, every Tuesday night on Instagram.
Natalie: We do one tree hill right now.
Julia: We're doing one tree hill.
Natalie: Right? Right. Now we do, we're doing one tree hill. We do the TV shows on Instagram. We do the movies on YouTube. It's called, uh, sharing the wealth.
Julia: yes. Cause we're just too delightful to we're too delightful.
Natalie: Mm-hmm and therefore you should join us next Tuesday to figure out if, how many times Jules is going to ask me.
Natalie: If Dan Scott becomes a good person,
Julia: answered it of mines, inquiring, mines. I just I've answered. I know I've told you. No, , I'm holding out hope. I'm just holding out hope. I don't know. No, it's just it's he it's just a lot. Yeah. I will share with our friends listening that after we're done with bun tree hill, we will Revi.
Julia: We will visit the new adaptation of a league of their own, which will be on you have Amazon prime, right?
Natalie: Amazon prime. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Julia: Just checking cause that's what it's gonna
Natalie: be on. I would've gotten a login. What? I will tell you all fine. okay. I think Chris Evans texted Jules. No,
Julia: no, no. Mario should have been working on that this last hour, hour and a half.
Natalie: so everyone, honestly, there's no shortage of us on the internet. yeah, we will answer your DMS. We will answer your story replies and your comments. Oh. Go for it. And we're
Julia: planning a live show with Mario
Natalie: and we are planning a live sh show with Mario. Yeah. Mm-hmm yeah. Details pending because we haven't worked it out
Julia: yet.
Julia: yeah, but we are putting it out there. You can look for that at some point when we have the details.
Natalie: So I don't know what to say at the end of this show, because when we do one tree hill, I go see you on see you next week on the river court. Um, so I'm just gonna say, uh, grab a mug of your favorite hot drink and you stay comfy out there.
Natalie: should I be on the morning news?
Julia: We should work on our closing
Natalie: sign off. I think that was wonderful. I think there should just be a montage of how I close these shows. someone make me a, a fan montage.
Julia: Um, someone who's musically talented because none of my music friends are responding to me. You would love to contribute to our show by making a theme song for still
Natalie: comfy.
Natalie: I've got someone I can ask. We
Julia: will not say
Natalie: no so it's not just me going like, Hey, this is the intro music for this show. Ah, I don't wanna be, you know, there one day comfort people, you might get to hear the moment where I had to swallow the fact that I'm not a good saner because I had that shame moment one time where you really think you're good, but I wasn't.
Natalie: We
Julia: all think we're good. And I'm gonna leave
Natalie: you on that cliff hanger. Goodnight. .
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