Kate Vlasek

Episode 021: Mallory and the Trouble With Twins!

October 6th, 2020  |  1 hr 2 mins

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Kate and Lauryn are back to basics and regularly-scheduled programming with their discussion of Mallory and the troublesome, terrorizing twins – Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold. Despite the trouble and terror, it’s a light book to ease everyone back into the regular series discussion. Mallory has some significant plot ignorance that causes her to completely forget that her identical triplet brothers are different people with distinct personalities until it makes sense for her to remember in time to have the realization that maybe the twins are also different people with distinct personalities who don’t want to be dressed in identical infantilizing outfits with identical lives. We cut Mallory some slack since the story called for it and she brings it around in giving Marilyn and Carolyn the opportunity to realize and act on their own agency. And Mallory is even inspired by them to do the same for herself – with respect to ear-piercing and hair-cutting. Yep, it’s the one with the obsession with twinning and piercing, as multiple charges dress identically for fun and the BSC goes “malling” to get a total of nine holes pierced. We discuss how the new BSC series has or has not impacted our reading, the movie versions of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings being the definitive versions of each, and our own feelings and experiences on twinning and ear-piercing before taking a more on-topic tangent than you might expect into influencer culture and children’s rights to consent or object to their parents’ (or others’) posting of them on social media. And as always, we remind ourselves just how great Mallory is along with how much we appreciate Ann M. Martin for the care and thought she puts into writing each of these books and capturing each girl’s distinct voice and personality.

EM015: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episodes Nine & Ten: Hello, Camp Moosehead!!

September 15th, 2020  |  59 mins 44 secs

emergency meeting, netflix series, super special

Kate and Lauryn round out their Netflix mini-series with a one-part discussion of the two-part finale of season one! It's our conversation about episodes eight and nine - Hello, Camp Moosehead!

EM014: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Eight: Kristy's Big Day!

September 8th, 2020  |  40 mins 20 secs

emergency meeting, kristy, netflix series

The Netflix mini-series continues with Kate and Lauryn’s discussion of Kristy’s Big Day, episode eight of the first season. Edie and Watson’s wedding has arrived and we end up with mixed feelings about this one. In particular, we discuss missing the large-scale babysitting job and last-minute DIY nature of the wedding in the book, the overly fancy and “done” nature of the wedding in the show, and the significant issues related to money and expectations – Watson’s lack of focus or care about spending it and the implications on the family as a whole, Edie’s focus of her concerns about Watson’s spending solely on Kristy, and Edie’s reaffirming that she expects more of Kristy (not to mention that this is because Kristy’s her favorite). Notwithstanding some of our concerns, we, of course, express our great love for Karen, Morbidda Destiny, and Marc Evan Jackson. We take an on-topic tangent to discuss appropriation related to the practices of Aunt Esme and her share circle and a broader approach to spirituality and related practices. And of course the episode wouldn’t be complete without a conversation about all the wedding fashion (and Kristy’s very on brand SECOND grey sweatsuit).

EM013: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Seven: Boy-Crazy Stacey!

September 1st, 2020  |  50 mins 4 secs

emergency meeting, netflix series, stacey

The mini-series conversation on the Netflix series continues with Kate and Lauryn's discussion of episode eight of the first season - Boy-Crazy Stacey!

EM012: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Six: Claudia and Mean Janine!

August 25th, 2020  |  58 mins 25 secs

claudia, emergency meeting, netflix series

Kate and Lauryn keep up the mini-series discussion about the Netflix series with a conversation about episode six of season one, Claudia and Mean Janine, and also delve a little deeper into The Claudia Kishi Club.

EM011: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Five: Dawn and the Impossible Three!

August 18th, 2020  |  40 mins 29 secs

dawn, emergency meeting, netflix series

Kate and Lauryn’s Netflix discussion continues this week with a conversation about Dawn and the Impossible Three, the fifth episode of the first season. It’s another episode that stays pretty true to the plot of the book on which it’s based with an in-depth look at who Dawn is, why she (and her mom) came to Stoneybrook, and just how much she’s willing to do to get into the Baby-Sitters Club. We focus on the various father-child (mostly daughter) relationships that are covered, compared, and contrasted throughout this episode – focusing in particular on the differences between Dawn’s and Kristy’s relationships with their respective dads. Those differing relationships bring things to a head in Dawn and Kristy’s relationship, with Dawn doing what she does best and helping Kristy get to the heart of why she’s upset and lashing out. In examining how Kristy and Dawn interact throughout this episode, we confirm just how much we love the relationship between these characters and again gush about how much we love Dawn. We touch on the ridiculousness of the girls calling all parents in their lives (clients and otherwise) by their first names, narrative fake-outs, crystals, and how disgusting it is in TV and movies when people put their shoes on beds, couches, and coffee tables without a care in the world.

EM010: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Four: Mary Anne Saves the Day!

August 11th, 2020  |  40 mins 29 secs

emergency meeting, mary anne, netflix series

Kate and Lauryn jump back into the episode-specific discussions for the summer mini-series to discuss episode four of the Netflix series, Mary Anne Saves the Day. The show does a good job again of hewing close to the plotline of the book of the same name, with some great updates. For example, while a 1980s babysitter might successfully evidence her maturity solely be staying calm and calling 911, a 2020s babysitter needs to do more to take agency and find her voice. Here, Mary Anne shows her maturity in standing up for and speaking on behalf of Bailey, the trans girl she’s babysitting. We go back and forth on the pros and cons of Bailey’s storyline here, ultimately coming down on the positive side – appreciating in particular that Bailey being trans isn’t presented as a “thing” for Mary Anne to learn about and get comfortable with, rather that Mary Anne is presented the opportunity to speak up for Bailey when she can’t after the medical professionals misgender her. We talk about the fight the girls have (which is focused solely on Mary Anne, rather than being a collective fight as in the book), Dawn’s introduction, ongoing awesomeness, and status as an over-sharer, the reimagining of Dawn and her mom and the greater implications of the change in their race and the dropping of Jeff as a character. We also touch on Claudia’s plaid Clueless homage, chairs with hidden candy-stashing compartments, the “Mary Anne is a Boss” playlist and its greater implications, and the fantastic sequin content of Bailey’s wardrobe and agree to disagree on just what the definition of a “meet cute” is.

EM009: Emergency Meeting - A Conversation with Anna Nguyen re: The Claudia Kishi Club and the Netflix Series!

August 4th, 2020  |  55 mins 31 secs

claudia, emergency meeting, guest, netflix series

Kate and Lauryn are joined this week by Anna Nguyen, a PhD student in rhetoric and composition who also uses her Instagram (@whatwouldclaudiawear) to document her own sartorial choices and meta-literary commentary on the Baby-Sitters Club. We discuss Sue Ding’s documentary, The Claudia Kishi Club, and the Netflix series generally and touch on some specifics from the book series as well. In our discussion, we examine the model minority myth and the othering of Claudia in descriptions related to such myth. Anna notes that the legacy of Claudia for Asian Americans is largely positive and shares her concerns on why she feels differently. In doing so, she unpacks the significance of identity categorizations and the tendency to universalize experiences in monolithic ways. We dive into the cultural impact of the new Netflix series, the general reception and reactions since its release, and why we (as a culture) might not be viewing it as critically as we watch and discuss. The concepts of “white excellence,” the “white savior complex,” and “black shows” vs. “white shows about black characters” come up in our discussion of the series and the books themselves when we deconstruct Kristy’s characterization in particular, including a discussion of how changing the race of some of the characters for the show had broader implications in the interpersonal reactions. We round out the conversation with an examination of the opportunities in our future discussions related to socioeconomic issues, racism, and the use of Native American imagery and names.

One small correction: In a reference to the problematic Asian character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Anna mentions Mickey Rourke as the actor in that role. Mickey Rooney appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

EM008: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Three: The Truth About Stacey!

July 28th, 2020  |  44 mins 30 secs

emergency meeting, netflix series, stacey

Kate and Lauryn continue their summer mini-series and discuss The Truth About Stacey, episode three of the Netflix series. Conceptually, this episode sticks pretty close to the book, with the (thankfully) dropped miracle cure/quack doctor aspect, due in large part to our greater understanding of Type 1 Diabetes in children. The issues with Stacey’s parents now arise from their misunderstood concern about protecting Stacey, which Stacey reads as embarrassment and internalizes. The Baby-Sitters Agency is reimagined as a high school-aged group with significantly more business and marketing savvy, but with the same disdain for actually being good babysitters, run by Lacy Lewis, a Disney Channel series level mean girl who turns the villainy up to 11 when she releases a video of Stacey going into diabetic shock. We use this episode to praise the creators of the series for taking the opportunity to make the parents (in particular in this episode, the McGills) into more fully-formed and real-feeling characters (and Kate takes the opportunity for a cilantro-based analogy that maybe works?). We praise Sam for putting in words the problem with using “Club” in their name, but come to realize through discussion that the BSC really is a club, despite also being a business. We discuss some of the highs and lows of updates and representation in the show versus the books and recognize that there is a lot more to discuss on those aspects as we continue through our mini-series. And as always, we wrap up our discussion with a conversation about fashion, with a primary focus on Stacey and Claudia here and where Lauryn succinctly states that Claudia is fashion and Stacey is more ready-to-wear (and we say that with love).

EM007: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Two: Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls!

July 21st, 2020  |  39 mins 32 secs

claudia, emergency meeting, netflix series

The Emergency Meetings continue with Kate and Lauryn’s discussion of Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls, episode two of The Baby-Sitters Club on Netflix. Despite the title and general concepts being the same as the second book in the main series, we note that the Phantom Caller concept has been significantly modified and the related Phantom Phone Calls from Trevor Sandbourne and Alan Gray are non-existent. We discuss how this makes sense, but the shoehorning in of the Phantom Caller metaphor to retain that reference to the original leaves us a little disappointed with that aspect, while loving the episode as a whole. We get our introduction to Richard Spier in one of several nods to horror movies (and a clear indication of just how big a drama king he is). Parent/child relationships, expectations, and lack of communication are the big theme in this book, which we explore through our discussion of the Kishi parents with both Claudia and Janine and Kristy with Liz (also known forever to us as Edie) and Watson. Karen Brewer makes her first significant appearance and we are here for it. Her spooky energy is everything we didn’t know we needed. We touch on how great this show is at fleshing out these characters and showing their motivations when they do things that might otherwise seem out of character, how well it justifies original plot points despite updates to technology, Nancy Meyers kitchen porn, Mary Anne’s opportunity to be clever despite the lack of early warning system necessities, just what soigné actually means, and how the costumes chosen by Claudia and Stacey are so indicative of who they are.

EM006: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode One: Kristy’s Great Idea!

July 14th, 2020  |  33 mins 33 secs

emergency meeting, kristy, netflix series

Kate and Lauryn are back with the first Emergency Meeting episode in their summer mini-series to discuss the (hopefully first) season of The Baby-Sitters Club on Netflix! It’s a revisiting of Kristy’s Great Idea, updated to modern day. We discuss how the themes of the episode compare with those of the book it’s based on and find that this one sticks pretty close in spirit, if not in actual plot. There’s a fun montage of Edie trying to find a babysitter that we feel does a great job of justifying why the BSC would be useful and needed even with all the technology we have available today. We touch on how great it is that the kids on the show actually look like kids and discuss how perfectly cast everyone seems to be (with the caveat that there will be further discussions of potentially problematic casting when it comes to Jessi). We laugh at the fact that there is an actual “Danny Tanner Moment,” while appreciating that the show does a great job of turning it into a conversation rather than a parental soliloquy. We absolutely love of Watson and his inclusion in this episode in very integral ways that give us the foundation for his relationship with Kristy we were lamenting not being able to see when we discussed Kristy and the Walking Disaster. Edie’s parenting style when in comes to Kristy vs. Sam and Charlie gives us an opportunity to discuss how we wish the show had done better in some ways. We also obsess over the fashion, question how much kids actually babysit today, praise the level of detail in production design, and round out the episode quoting Kristy’s Breakfast Club-y essay voiceover.

Episode 020: Kristy and the Walking Disaster!

July 7th, 2020  |  1 hr 14 mins

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Emergency Meeting alert! We're as excited as all of you about the Netflix series and will be kicking off a weekly series to do a deep dive into the show to discuss with each other and you. Make sure to subscribe and follow us on social media for updates on new episodes!

Despite being the eponymous Walking Disaster, Jackie Rodowsky plays less of a central role in this book than you’d otherwise expect. He’s there, of course, but so are the 19 or so other babysitting charges who make up Kristy’s Krushers – a rag-tag softball team that is the product of another of Kristy’s “Great Ideas” when she realizes the kids in the neighborhood want to play softball, but maybe can’t otherwise do so for various reasons (most of which relate to being embarrassed about their skills). It’s a light book where we get to spend time with characters we love without any significant deep dive into any character or topic, which is sometimes a nice break in the BSC series. This is the book that introduces Bart Taylor, a very, very, very cute boy (according to Kristy) who has another rag-tag softball team in the neighborhood (although their so-called rag-tag-ness is called into question in our discussion here). We get a nice look into Kristy and Watson’s growing relationship, albeit without much build-up in the prior books to indicate that they are getting closer and more familial. We discuss some of the problematic positions taken in this book (in particular, the condemning of the use of the word fatso, but not of the underlying opinions that being fat is bad, and Bart’s complete failure to apologize for the Bashers’ bullying of Matt Braddock for being deaf), while positing an alternate telling with more focus on Kristy and Bart’s interactions along with brainstorming fanfic as to how Charlie is spending his time from 5:30 to 6 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Random side topics discussed also include thoughts on Ann’s writing process, vocabulary lessons, fourth wall-breaking, our personal feelings on loose teeth, purposeful misspellings, and twins in pop culture.

Episode 019: Claudia and the Bad Joke!

June 23rd, 2020  |  1 hr 23 mins

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Pranks are sweeping the neighborhood, with new babysitting charge, Betsy Sobak, and the Pikes leading the charge. And despite Kate’s prediction that the prank war declared on Betsy by the BSC could NEVER be after Claudia’s accident because that would be too shitty a thing for them to do, it turns out that they are, in fact, just that shitty as they decide to use a prank war to teach Betsy a lesson. Yeah, it’s another book where the girls let us down and the main child isn’t the greatest as the BSC takes “parenting advice” from George and Lucille Bluth to scare Betsy straight when it comes to the humiliation and embarrassment that comes from pranks when everyone hasn’t bought in on the concept. We compare and contrast the pranking that goes on with the Pikes and their babysitters (where everyone has a tacit understanding of give and take and has fun with it) and the situation with Betsy and her babysitters and classmates, who clearly do not have that type of relationship. We do appreciate that the lesson eventually comes due to a heartfelt conversation between Kristy and Betsy (rather than a mansplainy monologue a la Danny Tanner), but the fact that the prank war and somewhat malicious lesson-teaching works and is reinforced definitely rubs us the wrong way. We again confirm Dawn being the absolute best friend in the BSC and try to dissect why that might be (and getting a little arm chair expert-y in our conversation), while noting that the Claudia/Janine dynamic in this book is our favorite iteration of their relationship. We also touch on Claudia’s Asian-ness when compared to Jessi’s Blackness and how that will be something we pay more attention to as we continue reading, our heightened childhood expectations re: how important dry-cleaning would be when we grew up, wearing our dad’s (oversized on us) button-down shirts and learning how to tie flamboyantly colored/patterned ties, how when you’re a kid, it seems like every adult has stock cliched responses (e.g., “but it’s a dry heat,” “it’s not the heat that gets you, it’s the humidity”), and how oatmeal raisin cookies and apple juice might be the worst afterschool snack ever.

Episode 018: Stacey's Mistake!

June 9th, 2020  |  1 hr 18 mins

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It’s our first Stacey book post-move back to NYC and as we predicted, Stacey’s mistake is two-fold – initially she thinks it was a mistake to invite the BSC to New York to visit and meet Laine, but she comes to realize her own mistake in not appreciating her friends for who they are and acknowledging and not taking for granted the amazing city she gets to live in. After the lighthearted reprieve of the last book, we dive right back into an “issue book” that examines homelessness. We discuss the very surface level limited engagement with the topic while acknowledging again that these are books for kids and wondering how books of today are tackling this topic with more nuance and depth. This of course leads to an on-topic tangential discussion of Home Alone 2 and the “magical homeless person” trope of the early 90s. We also discuss the interplay among the members of the BSC and Laine, touching on jealousy at 13 (and today) and imposter syndrome and how those might impact the girls’ (and women’s generally) ability to feel confident in relationships and interactions, particularly with other girls (or women), touching on the fact that normalizing the feelings associated with imposter syndrome would likely benefit everyone. We also touch on the Hard Rock Café, the joys (or not – looking at you Kanye) of monochromatic dressing, sending postcards during a long weekend trip, Kate’s shocking admission that she “likes music,” acknowledgement that Alan Gray just might be Lauryn’s Cokie Mason, and monster bones.

As noted in the pre-episode message, we remain fully committed to supporting Black Lives Matter and all BIPOC voices and have included the following resources and ways to support:

• https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/a-growing-black-lives-matter-resource-list-for-designers-and-humans/
• https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/72778
• https://blacklivesmatter.com/resources/
• https://themadmommy.com/black-owned-etsy-shops/

EM005: Emergency Meeting - Mary Anne in Quarantine!

May 26th, 2020  |  47 mins 48 secs

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Kate and Lauryn hold their final (for now) Emergency Meeting to discuss what Mary Anne’s doing in quarantine (with some general final thoughts on the rest of the BSC and Stoneybrook in general). We agree that Mary Anne is feeling EVERYTHING and using a regimented schedule to stay focused on maintaining connections and helping others and avoiding getting bogged down by those emotions. Her dad likely kept up his rules about the phone and computer initially, but realized the need to allow more flexibility for Mary Anne to stay connected and coordinate Zoom calls with the BSC and their babysitting charges to try to maintain as much normalcy as possible. Mary Anne is likely relying a lot on Logan, the girls in the BSC, and Mimi for emotional support and an outlet for her feelings, due to her dad’s more closed-off approach to emotions. We agree Mary Anne is probably putting together her own pop culture challenges (e.g., reading every book in a series, watching the entire series of a show, or finishing all the books that have won a certain award) to give her a more passive activity that still allows her to feel like she’s accomplishing something. We ponder what the adult versions of the girls would be doing and in a roundabout way, when examining ourselves at thirteen, realize that extrapolating from thirteen years old is actually a pretty reasonable approximation of where they’ll end up as adults. We touch on Dawn (being the parent), Mallory (writing and dealing with her large family), and Jessi (ballet, ballet, ballet), discuss Lauryn’s copyright-infringing BSC flyer for her own club, ponder which house we’d want to quarantine at, confirm the abundance of BSC fanfic on the internet, and (of course) discuss what Cokie Mason is doing in quarantine (trolling the girls while secretly wanting to be their friend).

Episode 017: Mary Anne's Bad-Luck Mystery!

May 19th, 2020  |  1 hr 10 mins

main series, mary anne

It’s our first episode since the teaser for the new Netflix BSC series dropped, so Kate and Lauryn take a quick sidetrack to discuss their excitement and thoughts (generally and with respect to the FINALLY confirmed perfect casting of Marc Evan Jackson as Mary Anne’s dad). Then diving into the story at hand, we immediately touch on the Cokie Mason of it all (as she has made her long-awaited first appearance in the series) before getting into the bad luck mystery itself, stemming initially from a discarded chain letter Mary Anne receives, but continuing mostly due to Cokie’s scheming to help her friend Grace get Logan’s attention. We focus on the girls’ confirmation bias related to the bad luck they all experience and how they all immediately go all-in on the superstitions and witchcraft. We lament that there’s no skeptic or voice of reason like with child pageants previously, but transition into a conversation about the intended audience – specifically, how maybe that’s not necessary and generally, how well Ann M. Martin does at teaching kids how to read as they read. We do a related dive into Kate’s obsession with Kristy’s Mystery Admirer and how it and this book, when considered together, make absolutely no sense, leading to further discussion of timeline wonkiness and divergent/parallel timelines, and how the future ghostwriters may be the actual cause of all our confusion on those points. We also compare and contrast the characterizations in the books vs. the movies and find book Logan wanting, question Charlie Thomas’s life choices and wonder what a series from his perspective might look like (spoiler – likely very interesting and we want to read it so badly), and find ourselves concerned with the overly cliquishness and superiority of our BSC girls in this book. On the babysitting front specifically, Kate judges Dawn’s crafting choices and Lauryn finds the humor in her real-life nightmare, noting Claire Pike’s adorable question regarding whether a bird knows Santa Claus after it gets into her house through the chimney.