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Brooklyn Froyo/Ice Cream Crawl 2013
My foodie buddy Bev and I organized a much considered frozen yogurt crawl that included ice cream and sorbets and floats! Good times and a great event for a humid day. Stuffed afterwards? No question. And that's a good problem to have.
My friend Bev and I had been talking about our love of various frozen treats. The ranging flavors at places like 16 Handles and the new addiction I had for Pinkberry since it was the closest option near my place of employment. And then it struck us...there are a crapload of frozen yogurt and ice cream eateries in Brooklyn. Since Bev loves her area and I don't get to Brooklyn as much as I'd like we proposed a #froyocrawl. (In the end our crawl was more like an ice cream one than frozen yogurt but you get the idea.) So, "end of summer" being Labor Day weekend seemed like an ideal time. People may be out of town and we could get our grub on. We knew we wanted to go to a handful of places. The way to organize a crawl or tour of any sort in which food is involved is to be realistic. Don't stuff 10 places into a day. Any amount of food may get you full and the last few places will fall by the wayside. And when sweets are involved at some point everyone will want something savory to offset the sweet intake. We picked 5 places. Bev routed it better than I did.
Luckily we had a group of 5 that turned into 6 at our second location, which is ideal for places in terms of seating and also tasting as much as possible without getting too full or too overzealous.
First stop was Blue Marble in Cobble Hill. Our objective was at each stop to get the smallest size possible so we wouldn't overdo it. We got the child size or minis at every location (some got smalls, but hey you get the drift). Each person got a different item and we all tried. There were sampling spoons aplenty.
Our flavors at Blue Marble were: banana split, marcona almond, green tea, mint chocolate chip, and raspberry chip.
My fave was the banana split it had chunks of banana and a chocolate swirl with peanuts. It tasted like banana bread. And the same could be said of the marcona almond which tasted just like an almond cookie. The green tea, we were warned, was like getting a dose of green tea and there was caffeine in it. It was smooth in texture and flavor. I liked. I'm not a fan of mint chocolate chip so wasn't too keen on this in general but again it was definitely better than the mass marketed stuff you may have had. And the raspberry chip was a raspberry swirl ice cream with chocolate chips in it. Good stuff.
The ladies at Blue Marble were super nice and let us sample other items once we told them we were doing a formal crawl of ice cream eateries. Their vanilla is perfection. We enjoyed very much and it seemed that the marcona almond and green tea were big faves of our group. I'd highly recommend Blue Marble's ice cream and wish I could get it in Queens. I'd buy that stuff by the pound, especially the banana split and green tea flavors.
Funny enough the ladies mentioned that Blue Marble would be available at our next stop: Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain a few blocks away.
The feel for Brooklyn Farmacy is old school all the way. One of the waitresses reminded me of Lucille Ball in her polka dot skirt, low heeled shoes, and curls swept up with a handkerchief. Our waitress was absolutely lovely and friendly. The feel of the place is total early 20th century with games, books, typewriters, indexes reminiscent of what libraries relied on for reference before the computer became our main mode for info, and so forth. Wood all over and floats and sundaes and comfort food with lots of carbs in the forms of tasty sandwiches.
You have the option for egg creams, which apparently have NO egg in them (turns out the name is a butchering of the original European name, go figure), and sundaes, ice cream, and floats which are their big thing. I had a chocolate egg cream so I could scratch that off my food bucket list and the rest of the group had floats (Brooklyn Farmacy originals with a scoop of ice cream in a big ole glass). I also got their biscuit with homemade preserves (raspberry) and butter and I was in HEAVEN. They reminded me of my grandma's, just buttery perfection that puts all other biscuits to shame. To shame, y'all. I would travel to this place for the biscuits alone. But I digress, we're hear to talk ice cream.
At Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain the floats were as follows The Kiki x 3 (ginger soda with a scoop of vanilla ice cream), The Flatbush (a vanilla egg cream with a scoop of strawberry ice cream), and The Pink Poodle (hibiscus soda with a scoop of vanilla ice cream). Of the floats the Kiki was a hit hence three people ordering it. I really enjoyed Bev's Pink Poodle. The hibiscus soda was a welcomed taste and is being used more in food items. The egg cream was a bit lackluster to me since I wanted more dairy and creaminess but meh the biscuit more than made up for it.
After that we were getting full. Well those who had big a** floats were. Our next location was a bit of a walk but luckily Bev's friend David had a car and we squeezed in and he drove us over to Park Slope for the last three places.
Next up a fave, Culture! I highly recommended anyone and everyone get the key lime topping and original yogurt. I loves it to death I tell ya. I got original with strawberry balsamic topping. Someone got watermelon with crystallized candied ginger, someone else got mint with crystallized candied ginger (noticing a trend?), someone did get the key lime topping, and someone else got the blueberry pie topping with original yogurt.
While many did not taste the balsamic in the strawberry topping it was still lauded. I did get a hint because it sweetened up the strawberries. What you can say about Culture is that their flavors are subtle. Nothing will overwhelm or overpower making toppings and yogurt work well together and part of it's overall charm. The watermelon yogurt was tangy but not too tangy. The mint was a hint in their yogurt and I being not a fan of mint in frozen items would've gotten it because it was faint but good. The toppings add to it all and I'd suggest getting their pie ones or something beyond the basics of candy or chocolate. Go for their signatures, definitely worth it and a good midpoint spot so you're not too hungover from dairy overload.
At this point some people were wearing down but we were off to SkyIce Sweet & Savory further up the block. This was also the point were savory items were desired. Since SkyIce is also a Thai restaurant some of us got entrees. Luckily for us they also have samplers for ice cream. Huzzah! We got the 12 sampler of mini scoops which was perfect. We each got a couple of bits of each and didn't have to worry about too much being left over while trying a wide variety of items.
Our choices were as follows: Thai tea, Thai coffee, durian, mango, green tea, black sesame seaweed, honey ginger, white miso sliced almond, caramel sea salt, belgian chocolate brownie, lychee rose sorbet, and cucumber lime sorbet.
The sorbets were deliciously refreshing. Everything had a good melting consistency and wasn't too icy or chalky. The ice creams were creamy as well but I was a huge fan of the sorbets, especially the cucumber lime. The other two ladies, Alex and Bev, really dug the rose lychee and I dug it as well. Thai tea is apparently the most popular flavor at SkyIce and we liked it. I was least liking the durian flavor but the black sesame seaweed and white almond miso had an interesting flavor that wasn't too savory but worked well in the combos. The miso upon second tasting wasn't as good but I still liked the taste of the black sesame seaweed because the sesame and seaweed worked well with a slight peppery flavor there. Cool stuff.
At that point people were tapped out and understandably so. More than half of us had entrees at SkyIce but people, I was determined to finish this out. I did not come all this way to Brooklyn to stop now! So we walked to the final place: Ample Hills Creamery.
Unlike the other locations which were relatively tame Ample Hills was a bit of a mad house with families and such. I was the only one who wanted anything since a few people had had it before and informed me of how intense the flavors are there. Damn straight. I hauled myself right inside and went for the salted crack caramel. I'd heard good things. The lady behind the counter strongly suggested that I try it before ordering a small cup. She offered me one and I smacked my lips and said, "Yeah, thanks. Lemme try the honey one." The salted crack caramel had A LOT going on. And to me there was a strong hint of coffee. As someone who does not like coffee I would not have been happy and was highly appreciative for this lady to sway me to try before committing myself to one intense ass ice cream. The sweet as honey flavor was much more my speed, especially after all the dairy we had. The sweet as honey has homemade honey comb in a sweet cream. It was a great sweet item but tame enough to appreciate it too. So I offered some to taste to those who still had the will to do so and finished off my kids cup.
Slamming it into the garbage can on the corner I proclaimed our crawl complete. Success! And time for a nap.
Of all the locations I'd probably say Culture was my fave for the fact it's not too heavy or overwhelming or intense. Next up would be SkyIce for the sorbets. But if I was having people over for ice cream only Blue Marble and for biscuits?!? Brooklyn Farmacy. I'll have to go back to Ample Hills at some point when I have a stronger hankering for ice cream but that sweet as honey was a tasty treat to end things on.
Next up, possibly a mac n' cheese crawl, so stay tuned peeps.
A Chat with Amy Christine Parker and GATED Giveaway
I had a "convo" with my critique partner and friend and all around good person, Amy, now that her debut GATED is about to hit shelves. This is so exciting and I wanted to have a kind of discussion with Amy about how our CP relationship came to fruition as she wrote GATED.
You may recognize Amy's name from my post last year thanking my YA critique partners (CPs). But more than likely you recognize Amy Christine Parker's name because her suspense YA debut GATED is due out from Penguin Random House next week and has been getting great reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus. Yay, Amy! Amy and I met on WriteOnCon via a kind of "match up" where you read someone's synopsis on a forum, requested to see more, and then you switched work. If you liked each others writing and found the feedback was helpful BOOM you had yourself a connection. Amy was one of the first people I connected with and I am so, so very thankful for that.
JENN: So, what stuck out to me about Gated was the first line (Shoot to kill, okay) What?!? I was all over it as soon as I read it. And then I kept reading it and you sorted out concerns that we had discussed and perhaps you discussed with Krystalyn and Stefanie as well but what I admired (what I additionally admired) was that you were able to zero in on this stuff and get it done so fast!
AMY: I remember when we met thinking that I loved the way you critiqued. You were just the queen of finding all my inconsistencies. I was beyond excited that I was able to snatch you up! And thanks for thinking that I’m compartmentalizing so well!
JENN: You compartmentalize your time not just as a writer but as a reviewer as well. As a full-time mom and writer and doing everything you do from participating in activities with your kids/their school and reading others work and trying to find time for yourself and your husband it can be so much. That balance is crucial.
AMY: Truth be told I think I spend most days juggling everything like mad and hoping I don’t drop too many balls. Balance isn’t really achieved so much as I make my writing a priority no matter what. I wanted to be a writer--specifically a published writer--so badly that I literally let go of every unnecessary chore/obligation/frivolous time wasting thing that I could. My house is rarely entirely clean. My kids eat takeout just about as often as they get a home cooked meal. The laundry piles up. The balance thing is an ongoing goal I hope to one day come close to achieving. But even if I never do, I’m happy because I’m doing something that I love every single day and my family is happy because I’m much better at being a mom and wife now that I’ve allowed myself to go after my dreams.
JENN: I also realized when reading Gated how specific and unique the story was. This was a story that wasn't being told and could actually happen which upped the creep factor exponentially and it's telling as well that Penguin Random House has so much faith in the story itself but also your writing. Perhaps as writers we kind of zero in on what scares us because there's an internal thrill to it that we can control. When I was a kid my mom had A LOT of Stephen King books. So I read that. And I got into R.L. Stine from there and read some Anne Rice as a teen. I was growing out of BSC and Sweet Valley High/University to reading The Stand. So my mom's taste definitely influenced my own for awhile as I was growing up and lead to me writing this horror story I wrote in high school called "Terror at Bowne." I even did a sequel.
AMY: Stephen King was huge for me growing up, especially his short stories. I was a fairly shy kid and spent tons of time hiding out in the library at school. Uncle Stevie’s books were the ones I pulled off the shelves to keep me company. The short stories were perfect because I could devour them in one library session. To this day, his short stories are what have stuck with me most out of all that I read as a kid and probably had the biggest influence on what I choose to write now. Although...there were also these creepy story records I used to listen to with my cousins when I was really little (yes, I am that old, I had vinyl records AND 8 track tapes). I forget almost everything about the stories on those records, but I will never forget the sounds and the tone of the people’s voices as they told the stories. It made my hair stand on end and afterwards I would have the worst time sleeping. After every “up all night” session I had I’d swear off listening to them, but then I could never actually make myself do that and before long I’d be listening to them all over again. Scary stories have always, always been my favorites which is funny I guess, because my mom is much more of a sci fi/fantasy reader who likes things to stay light. When I tell her my latest ideas, she’s always a little freaked out! She’s wondered out loud more than once where my fascination comes from. I think for me it isn’t so much a thrill I can control, but more of a way of explaining evil and how it works to my readers and maybe most often, to myself. I think on some level maybe I’m looking to understand it so I can see it coming in people or situations and avoid it...but really, on the surface I think it’s mainly that I find scaring and being scared to be a lot of fun!
THE GIVEAWAY
Amy is being super generous by offering up a GATED prize pack with her debut's release! See the pictures of the items below. Ohhh. Ahhh.
Book Expo 2013: How's the Publishing Industry Faring Since?
Once again Book Expo was held in NYC during a hot (and semi-humid) few days. There was talk about the state of the industry and digital components (and vendors) had a key area in the Digital Zone. What is the state of the industry or really prospects on the state? Hopefully ever optimistic and growing.
Well now that almost two months have passed since BEA, Penguin Random House has officially merged, there've been layoffs at academic publishers such as Wiley and Pearson, and who knows what more may come especially with the DoJ agreement keeping Amazon from owning a good portion of the industry in terms of rights. But, as always around Book Expo of America (BEA) time the outlook for the publishing industry and state of books is optimistic and favorable. But you wonder is this because of the BEA crowd being booksellers, librarians, bloggers, publishing professionals, authors, agents, and the like or because now that there's a day for Super Readers as well extends to people who just have a love for books?
This year BEA was very giving. And while there were rumors of some houses having significantly smaller booths than last year I didn't see much that was different from the past two years before at Jacob Javits Center. Random House had a good sized booth away from the cluster of the big six which helped them move and start lines in the autographing area. And many signings had huge turnouts and waits, particularly those for Rainbow Rowell's latest, Fangirl. The acclaim for Eleanor & Park (St. Martin's Griffin) sent fans standing in line for up to an hour just to get a chance to take a picture of the author whose lovely smile and comical and searing prose was worth the wait.
Rick Yancy's The 5th Wave (Penguin Teen) and Sarah Maas' latest in the Thrown of Glass series (Bloomsbury YA) drew huge crowds and waits before hand as well. And that's just a bit of proof of how much young adult titles continue to grow favor and lines at Book Expo with YA authors being a good portion of those doing signings.
Scholastic Editorial Director and author David Levithan signed two of his new/upcoming titles, one of which is the gorgeously elegiac Two Boys Kissing (Knopf for Young Readers). Veronica Roth signed posters for Allegiant (Book 3 in the Divergent trilogy, Katherine Tegen Books). Marie Lu signed samplers for Champion, the last book in the Legend series and she'll be gearing up for her new series with Penguin due out fall 2014.
Algonquin had a YA takeover at their booth one of the days of BEA in celebration of their new Young Readers imprint that will have debuts this fall. Two of their titles were on the YA Buzz Panel. Hitting the 30 year anniversary it seemed apt that a new imprint could bring a new face to Algonquin. And one of the big draws and titles talked about on the Buzz Panel were If You Could Be Mine about two girls in a relationship in Lebanon and the MG book The Time Fetch. And even Tuttle Publishing which is known for it's books bringing Asian education and flair to the marketplace has YA books they were promoting alongside many of their popular cookbooks. And with Paleo becoming a bigger contingent in the cookbook scene Tuttle Publishing has that covered.
There was also the literary contingent with Andre Dubus III signing a new book out with Norton. Elizabeth Gilbert signing her new fiction title with Penguin. Giveaways for National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward's latest, a memoir entitled Men We Reaped about the men she's lost in her life and her life in the South. Colum McCann signed hard copies of his first book since he won the National Book Award in 2009, Transatlantic. Add in the talkative Adriana Trigiani and Jason Mott whose debut The Returned from Harlequin imprint Mira has been getting raves and there's a well-rounded amount of authors for a diverse audience. There was the hype for Burial Rites a debut from Hannah Kent and Wally Lamb's latest along with Son by Phillip Meyer. And Neil Gaiman didn't just have a children's book he was promoting and signing he also had an adult one (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) and drew a HUGE crowd on Saturday morning for his talk on writing and the business along with a signing afterwards.
Amy Tan was there to speak of her new book due out in November. Jim Carrey had a fast-moving line curling around Perseus's distribution booths for signing of posters for his first picture book for kids and Chelsea Handler was there for photo ops. Julianne Moore had another children's book she was promoting and Giada De Laurentiis signed her first children's book as well called Recipes for Adventure with an imprint at Penguin. But the biggest star seemed to be Grumpy Cat who had about a 45 minute wait for a picture beside him. But you could not touch the cat. At all.
So that's the fun stuff, but what about the business of publishing? How is that going? Ebook sales are rising but still do not make up a huge portion of the market. They take up 15-20% of sales in trade and many independent presses and small university presses are trying to find a piece of that pie. Making the Digital Zone and coinciding conference IDPF huge draws for industry professionals to get to know what's available on the digital side and how they can reap the benefits for low costs.
Even with sales not taking a huge piece of the pie like expected ebooks are and will continue to be very important to the market. Kobo, one of the lesser known e-readers may soon be striking a deal with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) to distribute their ebooks exclusively with independent stores helping both parties in one swoop. One of the detriments of the indie store has been competing in the digital market and a contract with Kobo can improve that. I mean look at this New Yorker cover (below). Doesn't that say enough about the state of the indies? Especially indies in big cities like NYC where ones pop up but need a steady base of customers to continue to go to. And in places like Queens and the Bronx we do not have many if any.
From the agent perspective, especially if you follow the Twitter-verse and look at new books coming out in the Young Adult realm certain trends are slowing and others are surging. Amy Tintera's Reboot and T. Mike Martin's The End Games both play off of zombies, which may be the new "thing." Dystopian is losing ground but there are still new ones coming out like Joelle Charbonneau's The Testing series from HMH Kids. And aliens are making a comeback! (See the popularity of The 5th Wave and also Malinda Lo's sequel to Adaptation.) Maggie Stiefvater's latest in the Raven Cycle series was a huge item up-for-grabs and traipses along a new line of fantasy and mystery and the hunt for a mystical king. Whereas contemporary YA is gaining ground and will always have relevance (note what I said about Rainbow Rowell's line).
Mysteries and their big name authors like James Patterson and Preston & Child had ARCs flying off the floor. And with the Readers Day on Saturday people went buck wild about the freebies.
More MG is being sought by publishers and agents. More specific stories and non-recycling of themes we've seen/heard/read before. It's becoming harder to become unique if in certain instances trends are the thing but good writing is good writing and books is what excites everyone about BEA in the first place.
So what is the outlook on the publishing industry? Well, it has ebbs and flows as any business does. Super Readers on Saturday proved to be big fans and also those in education seeking out titles to give to students and promote reading. Books will always be a necessity whether for entertainment, inspiration, or education. And BEA tends to remind those of us in the industry how much people enjoy it and how important it is. Yes, people get very grabby hands at BEA and there is shuffling of bodies and pushing of arms and taking of items clearly marked for sale but in the grand scheme of things it's about books and book lovers and uniting them for a celebration of the industry not just an analysis of it.
Time will tell what the (immediate) future holds for publishing. A lot of predictions made don't come to fruition. A lot of sites in beta may or may not be the next huge thing. And many books predicted to be hits may flounder and those that barely got any publicity may surge due to word of mouth from various people in the community. There's no true tell-tale sign except that publishing needs to be malleable and change with the times while consistently seeking to produce great content and find the audience for it.
For next year and the year after BEA will still be held in New York City at Jacob Javits before going off to Chicago for a year or maybe more. It's been really nice having BEA in my hometown/backyard for the past three years straight and I'll continue to enjoy it no matter the locale.
Ice Cream Takedown 2013
The latest Takedown, of the ice cream variety, happened on Sunday, July 7th. It was humid. People were sweating. And there was ice cream and free cocktails, two of the few things to get me to leave my apartment and the a/c to trek to Brooklyn.
Sunday was the perfect day to be eating ice cream. Maybe not so much to take it to Gowanus and serve people though. But what can you do? The annual Takedowns hosted by Matt Timms went down, and it was a grand. Once again Matt organized a lovely event sponsored by PAMA, Il Laboratorio del Gelato, Phin and Phebes, Mikey Likes It, and Enterprise. And as it often is the event was at the Brooklyn gem, The Bell House.
Free cocktails (thanks to PAMA) of PAMA cocktails flowed for the first hour. And even after tasting a bunch of delicious ice cream from participants there was still some to be tasted from Mikey Likes It. Good times.
It is hot and humid on the east coast. Has been for a few weeks and needless to say people can get antsy. But there was dry ice to keep the ice cream chilled and lines to streamline things and people ready to eat and judge and eat some more. Even Tyra Banks, yes ANTM's Tyra Banks, made an appearance and ate and left and maybe she even voted. Who knows? I didn't want to be that person sneaking a picture of her as she tried to enjoy the ice cream, but even Matt Timms was all "Holy crap! A supermodel came to one of the Takedowns."
But yeah, ice cream. And lots of it! Twenty entrants overall and less people in the space because of the heat and precious goods made for a not too packed time with room to roam and slurp and get on lines for more creamy goodness of the frozen variety. There were a lot of great flavors and unique ones at that.
My Standouts
A couple adorable kids and their aunt (Team JujuBeans) presented Coco Cado, a creamy avocado ice cream with toasted coconut that was a perfect merging of flavors. Each relied on the other and it was in my top 5.
Other faves were cannoli ice cream with a cannoli shell and a kind of icy cream with chocolate bits inside made by Kimberly Stein. The shell really made this one. Kimberly said she spent 22 hours making them and they were perfect.
Then there was Daisy's backwoods blueberry sherbet with buttermilk and moonshine that was quite refreshing after having so much cream based items. And she won not only a judge prize but an audience prize as well. Her's definitely stood out among the crowd.
An apple pie ice cream with sugared apples and crumble made by Angela made me think what she made should be mass produced and available to the world. It really had all the elements of apple pie in ice cream form. Something only Angela could produce.
Other standouts included the 3 PBJ which was peanut butter ice cream with balsamic jam glaze and brown buttered croutons. Flavors in all aspects and the crunch! Fantastic.
Add in some butterscotch (which took the top judge prize) and a lemon meringue pie ice cream by Alice (which took the top audience prize) and you have the contrast of cream flavors filling you up to lighter essences engaging your palate.
There were some entrants that may be a bit icy or too melty to properly get the flavors or badly constructed due to the heat but hey that's what experimentation is all about. Previous Takedown winner Adrian was one of the few to have booze and bacon in his while Steve, a Takedown winner from two years prior, also had alcohol and a great sandwich construction with his cakey sandwich and boozy Irish car bomb ice cream sandwich. There was "A Hot Friend Named Ginger" which combined the overall flavor of ginger with some heat that kicks in soon after it hits your tongue. There was a s'mores ice cream with a marshmallow base and then you also had some Mexican Hot Chocolate (won 3rd place by the judges) in spicy or mild. The texture of the Mexican Hot Chocolate was on par with Haagen Dazs.
And like Matt always says you have to give a HUGE round of applause to those who enter these Takedowns. As someone who did the cookie one I know how much work goes into it and in finding the right consistency and texture for your ice cream as well as balancing flavors AND getting it to another borough in 90+ degree weather? Well hats off to you Takedowners for making it happen and showing us a great time and what "amateur" cooks can produce. Though I feel none of these entrants are amateurs in the least!
Congrats to ALL those who entered and Thanks so much for your delicious treats. I will be there again next year and will probably see some of you at a later Takedown. Off to nap now.
To see a full list of entrants check thetakedowns.com for Matt's follow-up post.
What I Learned About Character Development, I Learned from Joss Whedon
Had an epiphany when revising my YA book of how much Joss Whedon's "Buffy" was an influence on me as an artist. Here's a bit of me praising the man and noting some key episodes you may want to check out of "Buffy." Please also not spoilers if you haven't watched the entire show.
True story. I was thinking about character development and how instrumental it is to my process and in my reading of books. My work tends to be more character driven (what often describes literary) and not as plot driven (what often describes genre), though, depending on the story, the two intersect a lot.
And while I read a lot and have read a lot in my younger days I also realized that television has had a big impact on my writing style.
It was after watching The Avengers and soon after the full season of the much too short-lived Firefly that I returned to doing (really contemplating doing) revisions on my YA novel that I sat still and looked up and (internally) said "Holy crap." I had just realized that much of what I'd learned about character development hadn't just come from books but came from a very specific place. And that place is a little show you may have heard of (especially for my generation) called Buffy.
YES. Buffy. Buffy was my LIFE. It was one of the reasons I had to have a television. I barely watch TV now. But then, it was imperative that me and my best buddy at the time call each other at 7:59pm on the dot and watch Buffy, in silence, and then discuss what happened over the commercial break.
Discussion often went like this in clipped sentences: Can you believe who died? I bet she's not really dead. Who's evil? Who's good? He's not going to college? He's getting his own show! Who's this douchebag she's dating? No...way...he's a werewolf?! Alternate dimensions! How creepy are The Gentleman? Wiccans!
When the show started (and ended) Buffy and I were the same age, so we hit our highs and lows together. She was a new student at a new school. (Been there.) She felt out of place. (Been there.) But she was also a good a** kicking female. (Not quite there yet but I do have some attitude, or at least I'm told.) She made friends and those friends (Willow, Xander, Cordelia, and Angel) were distinctive through their funny and/or acerbic dialogue and their own character arcs. The show was called Buffy the Vampire Slayer but it really was an ensemble (just like Angel would be and would become a Whedon trademark in general). There was adult intervention (thanks to Buffy's mom and Giles) and fantasy elements and it all worked so well yet felt realistic. And that was because of the characters. Even when fighting other-worldly beings the cast had the same issues we all did, just add the horrors of dating, of insecurity, of not knowing your path to the fact that they went to school on the Hell Mouth and faced an almost-apocalypse every week.
Whedon had written the Buffy movie, which I liked, but in the Buffy series I found fully layered characters, plot arcs that bonded both the realistic and the fantastical with the fantasy elements often serving as a metaphor for life.
As the show moved forward it gained more depth and poignancy. And as Buffy moved through high school, so did I. As she went to her first year of college, I did too. There was the point of first loves. Lost loves. Feeling like you'll never find love again. Losing parents and friends and not knowing what to do with your life. Being burdened with new responsibilities and feeling like you couldn't handle it. Man, oh, man, oh man.
Some episodes that still stick out to me to this day are:
Please note if you haven't watched any episodes of Buffy (and I'm not sure why you haven't yet) you may want to stop reading here so you don't hit spoilers.
- "Innocence" (season 2) - The night after Buffy loses her virginity to Angel he turns to an evil douche. Cue metaphor! How many times has a person, especially a young lady, trusted a guy only to have him do a complete U-turn on her after getting what he wanted? This isn't just a teen thing but a human thing and seeing Buffy's realization that the man she loves is not that person anymore is heartbreaking to a point that it doesn't matter he's a vampire or not, the realness of it is palpable.
- "Ted" (season 2) - A staple for me because it showed a very great performance by the late John Ritter. Since her parents divorce Buffy was fine with it being just her and Mom and then all the sudden this dude Ted shows up outta nowhere. And he seems too good to be true. In usual teen angst style she's opposed to the new addition already seeing him as bad and getting a nice once over from everyone else who sees Ted as a good guy. This won't be the only time Buffy is dealing with paranoia and wonder "Maybe I'm not giving him a chance." That is until... Again, here we get something relatable with outer-worldly elements or the sci-fi nature with a robotic guy who wants to have the perfect family and will try to live forever in search of it and Buffy who wants to keep what she has intact because she's suspicious of everyone. As a New Yorker, I get that. And as a daughter of a single mom, I got liking the two lady dynamic and not wanting any testosterone intervention. We ladies? We run this!
- "Normal Again" (season 6) - Well, the last couple seasons were a doozy and Buffy went through A LOT in them. So in this episode it's more about dealing with the stresses of life. What do you choose? The life you prefer or the one you have? Who do you help? What's real and not real? It's all so intricately woven together in a way that you start to believe the whole show is unreliable and you can understand both Buffy's want to disown the "fantasy" life she has as a slayer and embrace one that would allow her to be "normal" for once. Who doesn't want that? And after several seasons of following her life and her pain and wins you kind of want closure for Buffy also, but in the end you understand her ultimate decision. A great episode dealing with internal conflicts manifested as a big old demon.
- "Entropy" (season 6) - Anya, a secondary character, was a vengeance demon turned human and goes back to her roots. Bitter and hurt to a point of no return she wants to get revenge on the man that hurt her. When Anya was introduced the vengeance demon thing was cool sounding, still is. They preyed on the hurt and got them to make wishes and give them powers. It was great. And then Anya became one of the Scooby gang and she was short and to-the-point filling a gap left by the equally brutally honest Cordelia and became a friend. And then, well, pain makes you do bad things. But again, taking these fantasy elements and putting forth what our biggest wish would be "To hurt those who've hurt us" and whether or not we'd make the choice is a tried-and-true question of morality and also consciousness. Again, I could understand the choices Anya made whether positive or negative.
- "The Replacement" (season 5) - My man Xander is split in two. One of him contains all his desirable and strong traits and the other his less desirable traits. And guess which one is better at life? Weak Xander watches Strong Xander succeed and is jealous of his own self. Yet, he's not incapable of doing these things because this guy is him after all. Sound familiar? I know I've been jealous/envious of friends who've succeeded and realized that there was just as much potential in myself to do the same. You just needed that fire to push you to DO those things. And when Xander sees the woman he loves charmed by his alternate self he finally steps into action. Character growth through forced events making him/her see what they really are capable of.
But even beyond these moments where the bigger story has a kind of Boom! Bang! Pow! momentum to the action there are quieter ones too like at the end of "Potential" when Xander notices that Buffy's sister Dawn is feeling out of the loop and group because she doesn't have powers and he can relate to her on that level. Or in "The Body" where Buffy loses her mom and much of the episode is just dealing with that loss on a human level. These are elements of a show that takes a break from that fantastical or science fictiony bits and just relates to you as a person and continues to do so throughout every episode, every season.
So yeah, I learned a lot from that show and it hit me about a decade after it left the air and years after I'd seen an episode. Yet, in reading summaries I am reminded of character development, evolution of self, and the writing and experimentation that catered to making these characters people you'd want to fight for and fight with. And when I go back to my revisions for my YA project I'll keep that in mind with every word and scene to make sure that these people I created could make even the smallest difference in their world and for a potential reader.
In summary, thanks Joss Whedon and the writers of Buffy. Keep up the good work. No pressure.