Classic City Vibes
Classic City Vibes Podcast - Conversations with people in the Athens, Oconee and surrounding communities who help make this such an amazing place to live. Learn what is going on in one of the nation’s most famous music, film and art scenes, learn about some of the amazing opportunities around us where you can be active and interact with others who have similar interests. This podcast is put out by the Athens Regional Library System where we are committed to helping build strong communities and celebrating our diversity. Engaging Communities, Exceeding Expectations.
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Classic City Vibes
Alissa Huelsman-Bell of Thunderfoot Studio
Novelist and entrepreneur Alissa Huelsman-Bell discusses her journey from Star Trek-inspired storyteller to owner of Thunderfoot Studio, a new film production facility at Wire Park in Watkinsville. Her creative path spans writing 20 published books across multiple genres to building a space where both established and emerging filmmakers can create high-quality content.
Bio:
Calm like an F-bomb*, Alissa Huelsman-Bell writes books about fierce women rockers who have a hard time keeping their clothes on, gender-swapped Norse gods who don't understand modern idioms, middle-aged hemophobic Bloodwitches, and the occasional murderer. Her aliases include Kendall Grey (ASGARD AWAKENING, HARD ROCK HARLOTS, and JUST BREATHE series) K.G. Green (ASK THE BLOOD series), Kendall Day (FALLING FOR MR. SLATER), Seven Slade (COMING OUT), and she is 1/5 of Thor Cox (GRAFFITI CITY series).
Alissa owns Thunderfoot Studio, a small but mighty virtual production studio in Watkinsville, Georgia. She lives near Athens, Georgia with her dashing geek husband, a one-eyed dachshund that thinks she's a cat, and an incorrigible yet adorable mutt whose ice-blue eyes will steal your heart and hold it for ransom. She is currently writing an independent television show that she plans to shoot at Thunderfoot.
* Detonation manual not included.
Welcome to Classic City Vibes. We have today with us Alyssa Holzman-Bell. She is a novelist, owner and CEO of Bell Boys Media, thunderfoot Studio, which we're excited to talk about because it's here at Wire Park with us, and author named Kendall Gray Is that?
Speaker 2:your that's one of them.
Speaker 3:That's one of your names.
Speaker 1:So we'll get into that and probably a lot more other stuff, but we always like. To kind of start like like where did you first get into art, because you do a lot of different types of art what was your first kind of love and when you fell in love with it?
Speaker 2:I always blame it on Star Trek, because why not, right, I don't know. When I was a little kid I remember spending a lot of time watching Star Trek the original series with my dad and it had just this big impression on me. Back then, you know, we didn't have the same kind of digital effects and all the cool stuff. It was just like, you know, monster blobby guy in a weird suit or whatever. And anyway, I was fascinated by that and I think I think that's what made me sort of fall in love with storytelling, which brought me to, hmm, maybe I should write some stories.
Speaker 2:So I'd write little stories as a kid and as I got older I would, you know, write scenes or just like bits and pieces of stories, but I never really finished anything. And then I got an idea much later, when I was on a whale watch boat about a whale biologist and it just kind of blew up in my head and I realized I have an actual story. That's like I can finish it, I can write this whole thing, and I did. And 13 rewrites later it got published.
Speaker 2:And that was called Inhale and that's kind of where it started.
Speaker 1:Well, that's pretty impressive. Your first kind of like attempt to get published.
Speaker 2:I mean well it was self-published so I did it myself, but still yeah that's great.
Speaker 1:So when you were writing, was it mostly like kind of first, like sci-fi and influenced by that Star Trek, or was it more like contemporary whale biology?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was that book was. I call it urban, I think now they call it romantic. They didn't have that term back then in 2012. So I called it urban fantasy romance, which is pretty much the same thing. So I called it urban fantasy romance, which is pretty much the same thing. But yeah, I think that that magical. There was something about like sci fi and fantasy that just really appealed to me. I think it was just because it's so creative and it's so outside, just the normal, your normal everyday stuff. That that's kind of what I think attracted me to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and with those kind of genres you can really get a good core of a story in there without having to be put into a box of some sort. You can really just go for it.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I also loved the world-building aspect of it too it's like oh well, I can make the rules, and if I don't like something, I can just not do that or put some other thing in there or whatever.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't like something, I can just not do that, or put some other thing in there or whatever. Oh, real life work that way.
Speaker 2:That would be wonderful, wouldn't it?
Speaker 1:I'm just going to change the rules now. I don't like this. We'll just do it this way. That's right. How many books have you written now? Because it's close to 20, right.
Speaker 2:Well, I've written probably about 25, but I've published 20. Oh, okay, probably about 25, but I've published 20.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so it is 20. Okay, yeah, that's great. How long does a book usually take you?
Speaker 2:It can take anywhere from, like the first one that took me, you know, four years, and I've written other ones in much shorter time. It just depends, like sometimes, if you just have a really good idea, that's just like I know exactly how this is going to play out, it goes really smoothly. And then there's times when you know you run into a snag and you're like, well, that's not gonna work, so now I gotta go back and redo all this and you know so I'd say anywhere from a month, like I've written books in a month, um, like NaNoWriMo, do you guys ever? We talked about that.
Speaker 1:We just talked about that earlier.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's where you write a book, a 50,000-word novel, in a month, and I've done that several times.
Speaker 1:They're not, like, anywhere near ready to be published, of course, but yeah, I've heard several authors who you know it wasn't the finished product but it was like a great launching pad. We were talking about earlier how just you know they would have meetups and stuff and even though you're just sitting in the room, you're all like in your own worlds typing. There's a sort of energy of like I'm with all these other writers. Yeah, and you're doing the thing that kind of inspires yourself to work a little harder Exactly.
Speaker 2:Maybe do a few more words today, or maybe do a few more words today and I will give a plug for your library how awesome it is the Pen Pals Writing Group here at Oconee County Library with Ash. Ash, she's amazing, she does a great job. Yes, that is a great place that you can practice your writing as well. We've started doing the first meeting of the month. I think it's like the second Monday of the month is the first meeting, and that one we usually do like a writing prompt, so kind of like that much smaller scale, of course, but everybody just sits around and we write for like 20 or 30 minutes and then we talk about it and it's kind of cool. And then the second meeting is usually, I think, the fourth Monday.
Speaker 1:You should check this because I could be wrong.
Speaker 2:I think it's the fourth Monday, but that's the one where we actually, you know, read each other's work and critique it, and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's a good idea to break it up that way because for some people, like if they want to get into writing, they don't have anything to bring to a critique and it can be very daunting to go to a critique group without knowing the people and that kind of thing. Oh yeah, so like to have to just go in there and just do prompts and kind of get to know people is a great way to access. But then there's other people who are a little further along. They're just more interested in getting some feedback on what they're working on. So it's good that you can do both or have those kind of options to drop in. That's really cool.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and they're just great people. I mean it's, you know, a fairly consistent group, and they always have a really good idea. So I enjoy it.
Speaker 1:So if someone wants to start reading your books, do you have one that you kind of recommend Like this is one I would start with, or I would say it depends on what you like to read, because I have books in a lot of genres.
Speaker 2:So you know, if you like romance, you probably don't want to read the sci-fi or the fantasy. If you like fantasy, you might not want romance. So I guess it would depend on that. But the Asgard Awakening series is a pretty fun, easy way to get into my books. I think it's pretty, you know, low-key, low-key. It's about low-key, nice.
Speaker 3:I didn't actually mean to do that but I did.
Speaker 2:Now. I regret it.
Speaker 1:We'll keep that one in there, though. Oh yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that one's a fun series. Cool, what would you? That one's a fun, it's a fun series.
Speaker 3:Cool. What would you say that you draw your inspiration from these days?
Speaker 2:Hmm, the world, the real world. It's kind of scary sometimes in the real world, yeah, but I've been working on some ideas of some stories that I'm thinking about possibly writing as a TV series. Whoa To do at the studio, cool, yeah, so we'll see. It's more of a. It's kind of a comedy, a post-apocalyptic comedy that's really heavy but funny at the same time. I don't know, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1:When did you start getting into writing for film? When did you kind of dabble in that and move that?
Speaker 2:way. Yeah, so I've been publishing books since 2012. And in recent years I've started really getting into television, just watching TV. I watch TV constantly, I love it. I can recommend anything like. I can recommend so many things, depending on what you like. But I got really into it and I started realizing, you know, I could probably take some of these stories I've already written and, just you know, write scripts for them and submit them and see if I can get it somebody interested. And then I was like, well, I could just do it myself. I mean, I like doing things myself, so I like having that control and yeah, is that how you got the idea for the studio?
Speaker 2:you wanted to just take management to your own hands yeah, so once I decided I really wanted to start writing for tv, I went back to school, got into the entertainment media studies program at UGA and got another degree, learned how to do I did, I did a, took a screenwriting or, yeah, screenwriting for TV class. That was great, cool, got to work with other students on projects, you know, which was a lot of fun and it really expands, like my worldview, which is great, and I'm being an older person. It's good to you know, stay in touch with the youth and keep up with what's happening.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that was beneficial for me. And then I was like, when I graduated, my husband and I were he's, my husband is retired and we're just like, what should we do? Let's go, let's go make movies and TV. How do we do it? Let's go build, let's go buy a studio. So we're like we started looking for a studio, I don't know, probably about a year or so ago, and we found a lot of places that we liked and they kept getting bought from under us and we were really bummed out about it. And we had actually looked here at Wirepark at a different unit at one point and we were like it might be too loud, we don't know. And then our realtor came back with this unit, which is 310. And we took a look at it and we were like, okay, this is kind of cool and it's on the backside, where there's less traffic, so it's quieter. Maybe we should buy a studio. And we did. And here we are. Here we are.
Speaker 1:And when are you, when are you thinking about opening?
Speaker 2:so we're opening um september 1st, which is monday, oh wow. And yeah, we're having a grand opening celebration on september 18th, from six to eight. It's open to the public. It's free. If anybody who's listening is curious and wants to see what we have, we I would encourage you to come out and take a look. You can also book a tour with us. You know private tour anytime, so same thing. Just give us a call or an email or text and we'll do it.
Speaker 1:So what all? Let's talk a little bit about more about the studio, like what all is in it, what kind of services, you know, how do people interact with it?
Speaker 2:So it's primarily yeah, yeah, it's primarily a production studio, because that's what we want to do selfishly, but we have other things too, so I'll start with the production side of things. We have a main studio that is pretty big. I wish I'd written down how big, because I don't know exactly the size.
Speaker 2:Yes, you've got to come see it in person Come and see it in person and you'll know it's a pretty big-sized main studio. And then we have in it an LED light wall, a 14 by 9, so 14 feet wide by 9 feet tall LED light wall, which is awesome, and it's the same kind of technology that they use to film things like the Mandalorian. Pretty much everything nowadays is, I think, those light walls Anytime you see a fantastic background. They don't really do green screens as much, I don't think.
Speaker 1:So this is the replacement to green screens.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like the next generation. Okay, big high tech, you know, and so we have that. We also have some other spaces that you could film in, that were not necessarily made for that, but they could be. We have a green room that's upstairs. It's a really big space. You could do gaming, like streaming, you could do podcasting, you could do just like you could do anything. Let me think what else do we have? There's so many things. We have a lot of maker's tools as well, because we're very interested in supporting the art community in Athens and Watkinsville, this whole area, lots of artists around here, as you guys know. It's just such a thriving creative community, so we wanted to find ways to help support those folks as well. We have things like a 3D printer. We have a 3D scanner so you could scan an object and then the computer is like oh, this is what it would look like if we print it, and then you can print it Like you guys have here at the library.
Speaker 1:But we don't have a scanner. Oh, I thought you did. We don't have a scanner. Yeah, oh, I thought you did.
Speaker 3:I didn't think I'd heard of a scanner yet yeah, that's awesome, we don't have a scanner?
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, well, we have the scanner.
Speaker 3:There you go. That's the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have Thunderfoot, yeah, we just this week got a T-shirt printer, a T-shirt press, oh nice. So could do it on fabric or a lot of other materials. I suppose. We have a laser engraver, a button maker, and we're looking in the future at possibly getting a poster maker, which I think would be perfect for our studio. So, like you, film your studio here, we'll make a poster and we'll stick it up on the wall like a movie theater.
Speaker 1:I think that would be fun.
Speaker 2:So lots of different like tools that are available, but our main goal is we really want to support our artistic community and especially especially like the video production.
Speaker 1:What? What film are you first hoping to make yourself? You said you were working. Y'all had some you know said you were going to use the studio for your own film yes. What's your first project, or is that?
Speaker 2:top secret? No, it's not really secret I'm more interested in again I'm a TV guru, Not guru, I'm a TV addict is what I am, not a guru.
Speaker 1:Guru's good, we'll call it that.
Speaker 2:Talk to me when I win an Emmy and then I'll call myself a guru. But I have an idea for a TV show that I think would be pretty fun to make. We're probably going to just do a proof of concept, maybe just the pilot, see how it goes, get that out, distributed. If people, people like it, we could look at doing more. But yeah, that would be, that would be the post-apocalyptic oh, that's whatever earlier yeah, crazy, funny, but also kind of related to what's happening now as well so put it in a context of something that people will understand, I guess, or relate to.
Speaker 2:Maybe they don't want to relate to it.
Speaker 1:Is that the normal process, for I'm totally ignorant of you know TV series and how they get chosen Is that kind of the normal process. You shoot a pilot and you send it in or send it around and someone likes it and then move forward.
Speaker 2:Well, I think, traditionally, like in the regular, the old studio model, which is not us, we're completely doing our own thing. But normally I think you would probably write a script, you would send it to hopefully you would have an agent who would shop it around and then a studio would say yeah, we like that. Well, they would order a pilot.
Speaker 1:They would do the pilot, okay, and?
Speaker 2:then they would probably pay for the pilot, and then they would probably pay for the pilot, and then, if it took off, they would think about picking it up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they used to do like focus groups and stuff like that. Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But now there's so many more avenues to get it out there. There's TV, there's streaming channels there's even.
Speaker 2:You know, some people just go do the YouTube thing and make their money off the commercials they get on YouTube, just all themselves.
Speaker 1:You can make a lot of money on YouTube. Yeah, you definitely could. That sounds like a hard one to do.
Speaker 2:A pilot for the post-apocalyptic I'm just imagining like the special effects and things like that, but we have a light wall. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:That pretty much helps with all that that would help with a lot of it.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I mean this particular thing. I have been planning it around what I have in my studio, so I'm tailoring it to fit what I know I can do. So yeah, I think we could make it happen.
Speaker 2:Very nice we have some interest too from you know, we were at the Athens Film Festival last weekend. We were sponsors. It was great. By the way, if you've not been, you should definitely go and watch all the, the the shows, the movies. I guess it's more movies and shows, but they're great. Um, but they. I've totally lost my train of thought. What were we?
Speaker 1:just talking about. This happens to me all the time.
Speaker 2:My brain just goes, huh.
Speaker 1:It happens to me every five minutes.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:This is me.
Speaker 1:I'm like miming things. There's this thought in my head. I had to get it out and then I forgot it. That just happened to me. Oh, I know what it was, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2:We actually talked to several filmmakers at the film festival back on track and we had a couple of people come over to the studio. They were like can we come and see it right now? I'm like, okay, meet me there. Awesome, We'll show you around. And we've actually gotten a few people who are like we think we might want to shoot our film here. And I'm like great, so we're working on it. I can't talk about any details, but there's a couple people who are going to probably shoot features at Thunderfoot Studio.
Speaker 3:That is awesome. It's going to be awesome. Yeah, I saw I was on y'all's Instagram and all that, and I saw you went to the Pitch Fest. Yes, yeah, was that fun? It was great.
Speaker 2:It was so fun. People are so creative. There were people who had costumes, they had props. They came. There were people who had costumes, they had props, Like they came prepared and they were all great, Loved them all. And I was like my husband and I were talking and he was like, well, which one would you pick? And I'm like I could not pick. There were too many really good ones.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:That's good yeah.
Speaker 3:So there are stories to be told.
Speaker 1:Lots of stories to be told. Are you enjoying? How different is the process? You know, writing books is pretty solitary and making films is the exact opposite, in terms of it's so collaborative and you're working with other people and they're helping you with your project, you're helping with theirs. How has that been for you, coming from, like, the solitary book writing world to filmmaking?
Speaker 2:I welcome it because, honestly, I think that collaboration can produce such so much better results in a lot of cases than just you doing it yourself. And I'm a control freak. I like to do things myself. That's why I self-published, that's why I bought a studio that I'm going to self-do my own stuff, but at the same time I've realized that I do have to depend on people. There are camera people who know way more about how to operate a camera than I could ever know, and I would trust them implicitly over trying to do it myself. So I'm very excited about the collaborative aspects of working in a studio, whether it's my own project or somebody else's project. I love it. I've been on sets before, anthony, I think we have been on a set or two together.
Speaker 3:We're still trying to figure out which one that was. We know each other, yes.
Speaker 2:But you know, I mean you know what that's like. And when you are working with a great group of people, there is nothing better.
Speaker 3:Yes, agreed, everything. Just like everyone works as a well old machine. You're helping each other out, your strengths help their weaknesses, and vice versa. So yeah, when it's a great team, you really get it done.
Speaker 2:And it shows in the final product too, I think.
Speaker 3:What's been your favorite film that you've worked on with the EMST groups?
Speaker 2:Wow. I've worked with Natalia Gonzalez on a couple of projects.
Speaker 3:Do you know Natalia?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know her Maybe that's how we know each other. Do you know Natalia?
Speaker 3:Maybe Because I know she did the recent AI film fest right, yeah, and she's also big with Backlight, I believe.
Speaker 2:I don't know if she's doing Backlight. I think she was there this year, but I don't know. Okay way, natalia is. She is a brilliant person and I met her through one of my EMST classes and I just adore her and her husband, joseph. Both of them are wonderful people. But yeah, we I've done a couple of projects with her and those were always my favorite. She's just a really kind, easy to get along with person. Um, she is very open to you know, feedback or suggestions. She's just, she's just amazing. So I'd say, pick any one of her projects that I've been on. They've all been great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice, now does thunderfoot rent out cameras and accessories that people might not have, or how does that work?
Speaker 2:Yes, we're going to rent out. We haven't gotten to the point yet where we're ready to do that, but that is one of our plans is to have some equipment available. We have to sort of feel out how it's going to go, I think, because if we have the studio rented a lot, it's going to be harder for us to rent that because they might be needing to use that equipment. So we've got to figure out the balance between the studio rentals and then the equipment rentals. So I guess for the time being I'm going to say no, we're not renting, but stay tuned because we probably will soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that something you know? If I want to make a film here in the Athens area, is there a place here to rent? Yeah, lightroom does. Lightroom is great.
Speaker 2:I had not been there, but that was where Pitchfest was at Athens Film and they were great. That place is awesome. I would highly suggest you go and check it out. They're really really nice people and they have a lot of experience that I don't with helping you make your project. Actually do it. Not the here's a studio, here's a camera. Go and do stuff. It's like they help you figure out what you need to do and how you do it and I think that's awesome. So I strongly encourage people who are need help with it to go and talk to the people at the Lightroom.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you guys both serve really good different and similar purposes at the same time. Yeah, lightroom, like Alyssa was saying that, they've got the equipment there. You can do podcasting there as well and they help you through it, but they don't have the large space. Yeah, their space is smaller.
Speaker 2:Definitely it's smaller. They have a psych room, a psych wall, which is really nice, a cyclorama, um, and they, I think, two podcasting rooms over there, maybe I think so. Yeah, maybe more there's at least two that I saw when I was there, and they're great spaces, um, but yeah, I think our space is a bit bigger.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you can get the filming done and all that Right right.
Speaker 1:So what about your husband's part of this that you were talking about? When did he get into film, or did you kind of drag him along? I dragged him, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was actually a partner with KPMG, which is an accounting firm, but he didn't do accounting, he did like cybersecurity kind of stuff and he retired in I want to say 2023. And then he's just kind of been sitting around at home trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life now that he's all grown up and retired. And he kind of watched me as I was going through the EMST program at UGA and, tangentially, would you know, I'd come home and be like guess what I learned how to do today? And then I'd get out a camera and I'd say, look at this. And anyway, we would go through all these things about stuff that we would learn, that I would learn.
Speaker 2:And he got he's also he's a film geek, so he loves the film. I love TV. The two of us together you got it covered. We're perfect, we're perfect. But yeah, he was like saw how exciting it was and he actually was on some of the sets with me. You know, sometimes they need an extra body for something and sometimes he would act, I mean, just like whatever they needed him to do, he'd just jump right in. That's right and yeah. So here we are. He's decided he wants to make some movies too.
Speaker 1:Are you writing novels anymore? Is this taking up pretty much all your time at this point?
Speaker 2:It's taken up most of my time right now, but Greg and I wrote three books together a couple of years ago and the first one is called Ask the Blood and it's a, I would say like an fantasy comedy, witchy sort of thing. And that one came. We published that one, I think, about a year ago, and the other two books have been sitting on the back shelf. So now I'm like, oh, I should probably do something about those books. So those will still, they're coming, they're coming at some point. Yeah, we just got to find the time.
Speaker 1:Well, start your own business is a lot.
Speaker 2:It's a lot Just by itself Plus making films and all that. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:But you seem like you've always been one to kind of take things on. You know you went back to school to learn all this. Yeah, Then you started your own business part of your personality.
Speaker 2:A little bit. It's really that I just love to learn. I was a teacher for 13 years as well oh wow, In Clark County and loved it. I miss it a lot. Kids are when were you teaching in Clark County?
Speaker 3:I taught at Clark Middle. Nice.
Speaker 2:I went to BHL. Okay, cool, but all my friends went to Clark Middle. Yeah. I mean like Chuck yeah, did you teach Chuck? Yeah, I mean like Chuck yeah, did you teach Chuck?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I taught Chuck no way I taught all those guys.
Speaker 2:They were all there. I'm like oh yeah, I taught you, I taught you.
Speaker 3:It's kind of fun.
Speaker 2:It's kind of fun. But yeah, I just love learning and I've been back to school like a gazillion times, like I have two undergrads and a master's and then a whole bunch of where I was just oh, I just want to go and take some classes, learn about psychology today or whatever. I don't know, I'm weird.
Speaker 1:No, that's great.
Speaker 2:Keep your mind engaged, I mean most kids are like I can't wait to graduate. I was like can I just stay here forever? I love it here. It's great.
Speaker 1:There's still some classes I haven't taken. Yes, there's five, but anyway Right. So are you going to make some music next? Is that the next story?
Speaker 2:I mean maybe, maybe, no, probably not.
Speaker 1:But maybe no. What you know this is you know, athens area, watkinsville, all that, a lot of filmmakers, but it's fairly recent that's've seen that kind of rise. How would you describe the kind of scene or community in this area?
Speaker 2:I think this is a very connected, super creative group of people, and one of the things that I noticed when I went back to uga and being like the old person you know with all the young kids, is that the kids are so smart they're so smart it because I kind of was like, oh, I'm gonna go in there and be the smartest person, I just know it.
Speaker 2:No, I was by far the dumbest person in the room at any given moment. And be the smartest person, I just know it. No, I was by far the dumbest person in the room at any given moment. And and the things that the way that they think it, it just I don't know it kind of blew me away. They're also they also seem to me the ones at least that I interacted with to be very caring about each other, which I really liked, and that's kind of the model that we wanted to set.
Speaker 2:You know that we want to. We're here to help each other. Like, we're not here to compete. I'm not here to, you know, try to see who can get the most customers or who can do the most films or who can do the most whatever. I don't care about all that. What I want to do is make good art. That's what I want to do, and I want to help other people make good art, because I'm not always the best person to make the art. I mean, especially considering, like I said, how creative these kids are. They just they come up with stuff that I would never have thought of. So I would say very creative, very caring and very connected, the three C's Caring, creative and connected. Yeah, very good.
Speaker 3:Okay, there we go Like that Trademark that.
Speaker 1:Trademark it Don't put studio CCC. There you go. We talked a lot about TV, so I'm just curious like what TV if you have like a TV show that you kind of hold up as like?
Speaker 2:oh, that's the gold standard. You had to ask me. Now I'm going to tell you. No, please do Okay To me. In my opinion, the greatest television show that has ever been made. Are you ready? I'm ready. Reservation Dogs.
Speaker 3:Really, you've never heard of it, have you? No, yeah, I have.
Speaker 1:You have? Yeah, okay, have you ever? I'm going to point on the Tarantino movie.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's Reservoir Dogs. This is Reservation Dogs.
Speaker 3:No, I'm not familiar with it. I still haven't seen it, but someone recommended it to me very highly. Where is it at? Where?
Speaker 1:can people see it?
Speaker 2:I think you can get it on Hulu Hulu, okay. At least last time I checked it was on Hulu. It is. I think they only did like three seasons, maybe four. I want to say three.
Speaker 2:It is a show created and acted and every I mean basically just completely done by Native American people. Sterling Harjo is the showrunner. He, I think he wrote some of the episodes. He directed them. He's fantastic. He's got a new show coming out with Ethan Hawke on FX in September and I think it's called the Lowdown. So I'm eager to see how that's going to work out.
Speaker 2:But Reservation Dogs is about four teenage Native kids who live on a reservation in Oklahoma and their best. There was a fifth, a best friend that was in this group, who died, and that's kind of how it's—I don't want to spoil anything for you, but that's sort of. The kickoff of the show is them in the aftermath of this friend's death, and it gives you a glimpse into a group of people that is very underrepresented in my opinion, into a group of people that is very underrepresented in my opinion. I learned so much about native culture just by watching that show and I just feel like it is so well done in every way. The acting is great, the message is great. The sense of community, like what we were just talking about is just prevalent throughout every single episode. It is fantastic. Go watch it. That's my first one. I got another one. Okay, we Are Lady Parts, that one On Peacock. This one is a sort of a. It's a comedy set in the UK. That is a group of Muslim women in a punk rock band.
Speaker 3:Yes, I have heard of that, it is so good.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. It is hilarious. The music you will laugh. I mean, like just to give you a sampling. Some titles of the songs are Voldemort Under my Head Scarf. I think there's one called oh gosh, voldemort Under my Head Scarf. I don't know what the other ones are. There's so many of them that that's awesome.
Speaker 1:It is so great that one sounds right up my alley too, yeah.
Speaker 2:Bashir with the Good Beard, nice, nice, yeah, and then they do. You know a couple of other. Oh, malala made me do it, and Malala shows up. Oh no, malala, actually shows up Nice Spoiler alert, but yeah, highly recommend both of those shows.
Speaker 3:Really, really good. What do you look for in a show when you're like? You know, I sometimes get in that doom scroll, yeah, the spiral spiral of like I don't know what I'm going to watch. What is your criteria for this is going to be the best thing ever.
Speaker 2:Well, my thing is I will watch anything that's good. Like I don't care if it's like. I'm not a big country music person, but if I found a show that was about country music that was really good, I would not care, I would watch it. I am not like bound by any kind of. It has to be this. I just want something that's good and I really like shows that have representation, whatever it is. Like the Muslim women in the punk rock band. Again, like I would never have expected what happened on that show, I was like what is going on and why do I love this so much? It's so good. So, yeah, I love representation and because to me, I just really enjoy learning about other cultures, yeah, and getting away from like what's the typical. I'm really interested in that new Hawaii show that Jason Momoa's in I think it's called Chief of War.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, on Apple. He's like a chief. Yeah, I think it is Chief of War or War Chief.
Speaker 2:Something like that. But that one is. I'm going to start that tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure it's going to be great.
Speaker 1:It's definitely kind of like golden era for TV shows. Chief of War, Compared to you know, when I grew up, it was all sitcoms. It was all that was on TV and they were all atrocious because they're all the same joke over and over, yeah, yeah. But now there's so many not only there's so many outlets and there are so many options, but there's just a higher level that I feel like TV shows get almost closer to cinematic level than before.
Speaker 3:Exactly, yeah, there's. That's what I like about shows. These days, I've been watching a lot more TV too, and it's just like there's a cinematic quality to them.
Speaker 2:as James, was saying it's not the same as it used to be at all. It's so much better now. It really is.
Speaker 1:So we are in a library, so we're not going to let you get away without talking about books too. Do you have a book that influenced you or had an impact on your life, or just one you just really?
Speaker 2:love. Okay, there's one that I just really love, and it probably influenced me in a lot of ways too, but it's called the Price you Pay by Aidan Truen, who is actually. Who is he? He's a British mystery. He's a very famous British mystery guy, nick. Is it like Harkness or something like that? I'd have to Google it, but this is a pen name.
Speaker 2:It is absolutely crazy and hilarious and most people probably would hate it, but it was just so just bonkers that I could not stop reading it. And then there was a sequel that is also actually they're making a TV show out of the Price you Pay.
Speaker 3:I forgot about that. Nick Petrie Petrie.
Speaker 2:Petrie no, no, no, aidan Truen.
Speaker 3:Aidan Truen.
Speaker 2:A-I-D. I want to say it's either A-N or E-N, t-r-u-h maybe.
Speaker 1:E-N. I'm not sure. So are you excited for the TV show or are you a little worried, since you love the book so much?
Speaker 2:Okay, so Aidan.
Speaker 3:Truen.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's it the price you pay. Amazon is making that show and instead of Jack Price, who is the main character, they're flipping the gender. And, oh gosh, who's the lady who's married to Michael Douglas? Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Speaker 3:She's playing the lead.
Speaker 2:She's great, she's great. So I'm kind of like that show is going to be amazing. It better be, because I'm going to be watching it for sure I cannot wait for that and I don't know when it's coming out, but I did hear that they were at least about to start production.
Speaker 1:You can hear about something and it's like, by the time it comes out, you've forgotten.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, exactly yeah, because I'd just forgotten that they were even making it until you asked about it and I went oh wait.
Speaker 1:Are you a rereader, rewatcher, or are you kind of a one-time?
Speaker 2:I don't typically reread things, just because I read very slowly, and now I'm just doing audiobooks. I don't have time to actually read with my eyeballs anymore, but to me, you know, audio is still reading.
Speaker 3:It is still reading. Ash told me recently she's like I feel like people that discount audio books are discounting like centuries of oral tradition. Yes, Agree, yeah, that's how it started.
Speaker 2:Totally agree. So yeah, I don't typically re. There are a few like the Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. That book is so good. Every few years around Christmas time I'll reread that one because it's just, it's a kid's book, it's like a middle grades book.
Speaker 1:What about TV? Are you re-watching those?
Speaker 2:I will re-watch. I re-watch a lot of stuff on TV and a lot of times I do it for comfort, you know like. Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Oh, I love that show.
Speaker 3:It's so cute. I mean it's just, it's just it's a flaky, goofy show, but it has heart and it's fun and it makes me laugh.
Speaker 2:So when I'm sad, I just put on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, yes. Or the Venture Brothers, which is just crazy town. That's an animated adult swim. Oh cool Venture Brothers, yeah, that one's really fun. And of course I mean Reservation Dogs man, Anybody who wants to watch it, I will buddy, watch it with you.
Speaker 3:I love that show.
Speaker 2:And Lady Parts too. Same thing Both of them. I would watch them forever.
Speaker 1:Well, let's hit Thunderf00t one more time before we go. Tell us when are you opening where people can find information, all that kind of good stuff.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we're opening on Monday, september 1st, which happens to be Labor Day, because I didn't check the calendar. But that's okay.
Speaker 1:Are you going to be open on Labor Day? We're going to be open, we don't care.
Speaker 3:We're here to work. We can come visit you. Come and visit.
Speaker 2:And then we're also going to have our grand opening celebration on I think it's Thursday. It's September the 18th. From it's Thursday, it's September the 18th from yes, september 18th is a Thursday from 6 to 8 pm. It is open to the public and we're going to have tours and probably do a giveaway. We'll have little nibbles for people to snack on. So that's happening. What else did you ask me? I'm sorry, oh, and you can. Uh, our website is in progress. Right now it doesn't look very good because it's just a kind of a placeholder, but it will soon be updated. It's thunderfoot-studiocom, so you can find information there. We also are thunderfootstudio. All one word on Instagram.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming out today. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 2:It was great. I had a good time. It was fun.