2/4/23

Hi.

 

If you're coming here via my new portfolio at AudreyBridgeman.com, welcome! I got my start as a writer in 2007. During my tenure in freelance, I kept this blog as a place for random posts, reviews, links to some of my published articles, and thoughts that didn't get published elsewhere. Feel free to browse. 

Interview with Voice Actor Corey Burton

 


You can read my interview with voice actor Corey Burton HERE.

12/19/19

Holidays in Space at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex - Happening Now

Hi, everyone. Merry Happy! Last Friday night, I attended the media preview of Holidays in Space at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex. I'm going to review the experience here and include a link where you can buy tickets.

But first, a disclaimer.

I worked on this event as a contractor, writing some entertainment material. I'm also a fangirl for the space center. I love everything about it and have covered events there since 2011 as a correspondent. Am I biased? Yes. That being said...

I've lived in Florida for almost a decade now. I've seen every light show and fireworks display at every tourist attraction you can imagine. Holiday shows are typically themed to a vague, non-offensive idea about being unselfish or treasuring your family. And that's great.

Holidays in Space is a ceremony centered around massive, measurable human progress. It's easy to be jaded about history. But we sent people to the moon, you guys. THE MOON. We have robots on Mars. These quests have led us to discover medical treatments, everyday conveniences and everything in between. Every astronaut who's ever taken up residence on the space station talks about how differently they see the world when they've seen it from above, how it makes them feel familial about every human on the planet.

This is real science with real results and it matters. That's worth celebrating, right alongside the ideals of generosity and family.

Holidays in Space is a delight. Let me tell you why in three parts.

Part 1 - Pretty lights good.

Holidays in space is a pretty little set-up right next to the building that houses the Shuttle Atlantis. It feels like a party. (If you're reading this from the far reaches of the world, Atlantis alone is worth a trip to Florida. Especially if you're a NASA nerd.) There's festive lighting, delightful photo-ops, and best of all, a bright video wall.

5/14/19

"She does her own stunts."



"The studio doesn't like it. It makes them nervous, but when you can get that kind of action on camera actually performed by your leading lady, it's priceless."

Movies geeks know these beats well. We hear them in behind-the-scenes special features and documentaries allllllll the time, from Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider to Scarlett Johannson as Black Widow and most recently, the astounding Maisie Williams as Arya Stark.

Special features never cease to thrill me or remind me to throw some weights into my workouts. I love stunt actors and stunt performers and the actors who are willing to train for their roles. But this was happening much, much earlier than most of us realize.

Enter Lillian Gish, silent film star extraordinaire. Admittedly, I know more about Louise Brooks and Mary Pickford. But when I heard the movie Way Down East mentioned in an episode of Downton Abbey, I got curious. Silent London did a fantastic story about the film and the lengths Gish went to create a convincing finale. Very worth a read.

Here's Scarlett Johansson's Heidi Moneymaker

4/29/19

Meet Chitan

I am emotionally WIPED OUT, in a good way, after Endgame and GOT this weekend and I just...I really needed this. Thanks, Last Week Tonight.

4/12/19

Sore Thumb

This was a Patreon early release months ago. I hope that even in its unfinished state, it makes you laugh.

SORE THUMB

When I was a kid, I was self-conscious. Not a great revelation, I realize. We were all kids, and to some extent, we were all self-conscious. But my sensitivity was different. How?

Let me tell you a story.

One frigid February morning, the ground was slick with crunchy ice in our tiny Indiana town. Kids everywhere were reluctantly pushed out their front doors encased in layers of mismatched nineties knitwear. Any scene from a horror movie where zombies emerge from tombs comes to mind. In this case, picture the zombies as tiny, grumpy, and inconvenienced instead of starving for human flesh. Cartoon puffs of winter breath dotted the still, snowless air. 

I was a "walker". I lived six blocks away from school and normally I braved the cold. 

Our kind fireman neighbor emerged from his front door across the street, his two youngest daughters in tow. He was tough. Like the Brawny paper towel man. He had a blonde moustache. Also like the Brawny paper towel man. He saw me ambling in the general direction of the school, a slow-moving pile of barely animated scarves, and wordlessly gestured to me that I should come catch a ride in his pickup truck. 

I Stay-Puft Marshmallowed my was across the street. It was too cold for words. Cowboy head nods would have to do. 

He got into the driver's side. His two youngest daughters climbed into the middle of the front seat. 
These girls were everything I wanted to be. They were stylish, pretty, and popular. They were good at sports and they smelled like Jean Nate, the fanciest childhood perfume of the nineties. Their family was comprised of five beautiful sisters with blonde, silky hair, a perfect collection of living Barbies. Whether I was wrong or right to think this, I felt like Igor anytime they were around. 

Because I was this:  



Not a Klingon. A nerd. Professional grade. All-star.

I hopped, as much as one could hop in a spacesuit, into the truck last. Then, I closed the passenger door behind me—on my right thumb. 
That’s not the weird part.

File this under "late to the party"

I couldn't sleep last night and I just kept thinking about that Rambo meme where he's giving the thumbs up. You know, this one?


I got curious about where it started and found Thumbs and Ammo, an entire website/subculture where people replace guns from iconic movie scenes with the thumbs up gesture. The juxtaposition is always hilarious. Always. 


Go. Peruse. Enjoy.