Omg, can you believe it, we have another podcast -- and rumors say we'll have another one soon after this!

Check out demode, sarahbellem, & trystbat's rantings & ravings about lushly costumed & perhaps weakly acted "The Affair of the Necklace" in our latest Frock Flicks podcast.

Warning: Not for the faint of heart, underage, totally sober, & otherwise easily offended. In addition to discussing frou-frou 18th-century gowns & wigs, Adrian Brody's towel gets a fair number of mentions ;-)

Grab a cocktail & go here:
http://www.trystancraft.com/frockflicks/frockflicks.xml

Click the link or, to subscribe, open up iTunes & go to the Advanced menu & select "Subscribe to Podcast." Paste or type the url into the dialog box, & then you'll get all our updates whenever you open iTunes & refresh your podstreams.

Let us know what you think!

If you listened to Episode 4, "Wait, Wait, Don't Frock Me," & maybe you wondered what the heck was going on or who all these crazy people are, well, now you can see pictures!

In the official Costume-Con 26 photo gallery (a vast & growing treasure trove of pictures), I found this set of 7 photos taken during recording. Oh & here are a few more pix of your original recording cast.

demode is the one in green wearing a little hat with papers stuck into it (her Dickens Faire outfit), sarahbellem is the one in a sparkly tiara, & I'm the one in black & white. Those pink papers were our script.

Note: We don't usually podcast in costume or with a script. And that ep., we didn't have Pink Drinks. Shocking!

Can you believe it's been a year since we did our first Frock Flick podcast? We haven't exactly posted a year's worth, by other podcast standards, but hey, we do our best :-)

Submitted for your listening pleasure is our latest episode: Mira Nair's Vanity Fair. A Victorian novel set in Regency England imagined thru Bollywood. And somehow, it works! At least we thinks so. Let us know your opinion after you listen to our take.

To get the podcast, go here:
http://www.trystancraft.com/frockflicks/frockflicks.xml

Click the link or, to subscribe, open up iTunes & go to the Advanced menu & select "Subscribe to Podcast." Paste or type the url into the dialog box, & then you'll get all our updates whenever you open iTunes & refresh your podstreams.

Cheers!

But we didn't watch a movie this time. Yep, this is finally our Costume-Con 26 episode (sorry it took me a while to recover & edit this ;-). If you're familiar with the NPR show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," you'll recognize the format.

We quizzed the live audience about costume movies & TV shows & related history. Listen for everything from Star Trek to Marie-Antoinette to Showtime's 'The Tudors' references!

Thanks to good sports sweetladykt, myladyswardrobe, bauhausfrau, lindseyerin37, & others for playing our trivia games!!!

Let us know what you think -- maybe we'll do another one at a future event. But next up, a proper movie, promise :-)

Download it here or subscribe in iTunes.

Join us to help us record a special Costume Con edition of the Frock Flicks podcast, with audience interaction! Friday, 12:30-2pm in the Gateway Foyer.

As we hinted at in our last episode, yes indeed, we're recording at Costume-Con 26 in San Jose, California!

We are hard at work on a Frock Flicks edition suitable for a live, studio audience -- which means you!

Instead of reviewing a movie, we'll quiz you about costume movie trivia, historical costumes, & related topics -- but in a light-hearted fashion. If you listen to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me news quiz, you have an idea of what we're going for. Very silly, very fun, we hope :-)

If you're going to CC26, join us! We're recording on Friday, April 25, from 12:30-2pm in the Gateway Foyer. That's on the second floor of the Doubletree Hotel, right above Convention Registration & the Coffee Garden restaurant.

Advance registration for the convention closes tomorrow, April 15. After that, higher at-the-door prices will apply. More info about the con is at http://www.cc26.info/

Hope to see you there!

For those who want to look at images of the costumes we discuss in the latest episode of the Frock Flicks podcast, on the Other Boleyn Girl, here are links to the discussed costumes in the other we discussed them.

Major shout-out to the fabulous Costumer's Guide to Movie Costumes for being such a great resource for movie costume images! Here's the main page for Other Boleyn Girl images.

The Circle dresses - Anne's and Mary's

The headdresses - early (see the Circle dress images), court (Anne's green dress), Marian (see Mary's orange dress), Gable (see Anne's trial gown and Catherine of Aragon and her ladies)

Sari fabrics - the badly applied trim was on Anne's peacock dress

Henry's copper and blue brocade fabric

Henry's chenille robe (maybe?)

Morning after marriage - crazy printed couch robes

Billaments on court gowns - see, for example, Anne's green gown and Mary's orange/red gown

Bodice fitting - Catherine of Aragon

Chemises - see for example Mary's orange robe

Jewelry, partlets, and hair - you can see these throughout most costumes

Execution scene - sadly no stills showing the coif, but here's the dress

Favorites:
Kendra's: Anne's green gown
Sarah: Mary's orange robe
Trystan: Anne's trial dress, gowns with overpartlet like Anne's brocaded gown

Least favorites:
Kendra's: the Circle dresses - Anne's and Mary's
Sarah: Anne's Cranach (riding) dress
Trystan: Mary's black patterned gown

Men's hair: Dad's dorky hair, Henry's crop

Anne's Calla Lily dress

Sorry it's been ages since an episode, but we've made this one extra special. We went to an actual movie theater & saw a film currently in the theaters -- yep, it's The Other Boleyn Girl.

Go here:
http://www.trystancraft.com/frockflicks/frockflicks.xml

Click the link or, to subscribe, open up iTunes & go to the Advanced menu & select "Subscribe to Podcast." Paste or type the url into the dialog box, & then you'll get all our updates whenever you open iTunes & refresh your podstreams.

This movie has caused great uproar both before it came out & since because *gasp* *horror* the story is historical fiction, not strictly history. But as we've noted in past podcasts, movies are meant to be entertainment, not history, so keep an open mind :-)

Listen & discuss!

We'll post links to the costumes we mention soon.

I was reading a travel magazine & came across this url for film locations of Elizabeth: The Golden Age -- http://www.visitbritain.com/thegoldenage

The site has a nifty PDF map listing historic locations used in the movie, plus general QEI historic sites to visit around Britain.

*adds stuff to travel wishlist*

Right, so Trystan reminded me that I haven't posted my favorite QEI... Glenda Jackson is probably at the top of the pile, but I'm really attached to Helen Mirren's portrayal in Elizabeth I. I gave Trystan a copy to watch, thinking she'd dig it, but she dissed it (I still love you, Trystan, and I forgive you. Tee hee!), because it does play up Elizabeth's more emo side, with her long, drawn out, probably-unconsumated-sexually-frustrating romance with Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester (played by the delicious Jeremy Irons, who was born to play that role, IMHO), and later, with Leicester's step-son Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, a wildly age-inappropriate relationship based entirely on ambition which fails spectacularly and culminates in Essex's execution for treason. In between the two men, the movie inserts Elizabeth's farcical betrothed to the 26 year old François, Duc d'Anjou, offering probably the best screen version of the "romance" that dragged on for the better part of 1579, other than the BBC interpretation (of course. Who can compete with that?).

Why I give this mini-series such high marks? Well, for one it has Helen Mirren in it. Second, the costumes are gorgeous, and I think the designer's choices in where to cut historical accuracy and insert a little fantasy here and there were well done. Third, I happen to really be intrigued by the concept of the human Elizabeth, the one who wasn't perfect all the time, who was deeply conflicted and who, when it came to matters of the heart, lurched and limped along as she grappled with feelings, duties, and frustrations. I love her for her "heart and stomach of a king" but I also think (and maybe I'm just projecting here) that she was also a romantic, sensual woman who had Needs and just couldn't let herself give into them. I really think this series was trying to deal with the greatest conflict of interest in her life (love vs duty), and call me a sappy, weepy female if you want to, I think it did justice the history of her life, but stripped away a little of her warrior goddess armor to show that there was a "weak and feeble woman" underneath. For me, that's ok. I don't need my Elizabeth to be striding up the hill at Tilbury to kick some Spaniard arse all the time.

Oh, and I love Helen Mirren. :)