Debbie Harry + '90s Reboots + Penny Codrington

This Week

Debbie Harry (Image via New York Times)

Happy October 1! As TueNighter Issa Mas pointed out, only three months left in this decade. What will we remember most about the "teens"? Rock legend Debbie Harry has a dishy new memoir (including a peek at Bowie’s not-so-thin white duke). Maya Rudolph is Kamala, Kamala is That Girl. We never knew we needed "Archie Meets The B-52's." A harrowing, beautiful read about siblings and loss. Instagram novels might be the future? This Mom just bested Usain Bolt. Learning to stay afloat. Talking openly about menopause. There's now a dictionary definition of "Bechdel Test." Have we watched the Lizzo/ Aristocats mash-up 20 times? Yes we have. 10Q is one of our favorite annual traditions. L’shanah tovah.

Rant: Reboots Redux

The thirtysomething crew. (Image: ABC)

If you’d told me in 1990 that I’d be watching Beverly Hills 90210 thirty years later, I would have laughed in your face, then thrown my Crystal Pepsi at you. But here we are in 2019 besieged by remakes, reboots, revamps and rehashes of movies and shows we didn’t necessarily like too much the first time around. I hate it.

Just this year we’ve seen remakes of Aladdin, Dumbo, Shaft and The Lion King and oh, boy here comes yet another Charlie’s Angels to the delight of no one. The old series thirtysomething is even coming back, which I initially thought was interesting because I’d like to see 60-year-old Michael and Hope fighting about blood pressure medication in the CVS pharmacy, but no. It’ll be about their children. Who gives a shit about their children? And who wants to watch Timothy Busfield again?

I’ve worked in the film business, so I know for a fact that there are tons of new ideas waiting to be made. I’ve read hundreds of scripts submitted to the Austin Film Festival, and there’s no shortage of fresh concepts, characters and plots. I realize that producers don’t want to take a risk and they feel safer trotting out a known quantity, which I saw firsthand when I wrote an update to Sixteen Candles and a movie company called me in for a meeting even though they didn’t own rights to the original so they couldn’t do anything with it, but enough already. Nostalgia is fun for a while, but we middle-agers want fresh stories. We’re not stuck in the past, and we don’t want our entertainment to be, either. Give us more Fleabag and BlacKKKlansman and Roma. Give us characters who have something new to teach. I want stories that reflect what’s happening in the world right now because it’s one of the most interesting periods in my life. No more reboots. Please. Let Tori Spelling take a nap.

—Wendi Aarons

TueNight 10: Penelope Codrington

Penny listening to her oldest son play saxophone at an outdoor park in Maryland

Age: 52

Quick bio: Penelope dreams of abandoning her legal career and surrendering to her vocation: purposeful storytelling. She enjoys writing essays and performing stories with a social justice or uplifting theme and is grateful for any opportunity to share them.

Beyond the Bio: "A decade ago, I decided that I was tired of feeling invisible. I forced myself to speak up, stand out and choke down feelings of insecurity in places and situations where I felt unwelcome. It’s been a life changing exercise, so freeing and empowering."

1. On the nightstand: Guanahani, My Love by Marion Bethel, a wonderful attorney/poet/writer/activist from The Bahamas.

2. Can't stop/won't stop: I’m obsessed with the scary drama of the impeachment proceedings.

3. Jam of the minute: Any tune on the Deep House or Frankie Knuckles stations on Pandora.

4. Thing I miss: Dancing in New York night clubs until closing, emerging tired and happy to a bright Sunday morning and slowly walking home drinking a New York Seltzer peach soda.

5. 80s crush: LL Cool J

6. Current crush: Brian K. (my dude), the sweetest, sexiest man ever! He's 10 years older, from way upstate New York, a veteran, and an outdoors enthusiast which means that on paper, we have nothing in common. Love of my life.

7. Will whine about: The challenges I’m having trying to reenter the workforce after taking a couple of years off.

8. Will wine about: Strength training. I’m so strong I can’t even believe it. Dropping those weights at the gym like boom! My teenage sons are impressed which is surely a miracle.

9. Best thing that happened recently: I became a published author thanks to Tuenight!

10. Looking forward to: My wedding at home in the Bajan countryside this June.

Story: Maid in the U.S.A.: The Invisible Helpers

By Penny Condrington

My mother was raised in a wealthy household in Guyana. Somewhere in my files, there is a clipping from the Guyana Chronicle, a photo of a pretty girl in a hoop skirt, performing on the piano for Princess Margaret. Her father, Mayor of Georgetown, watches proudly. That girl is my mother. She went on to earn her degrees in music performance at a London conservatory, where she met a handsome British army officer from Barbados.

My parents moved around Europe and then to a newly independent Barbados where the marriage swiftly disintegrated. One day she snatched up her children and brought them to Boston, forbidding us any contact with our dear father. In Boston, my mother, who performed on television in Barbados, disappeared into the crowd of invisible Black immigrants. When she met a Jamaican lady who cleaned houses for rich people, she became part of an underground network, scrubbing floors and doing laundry for a pittance.

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