Jessica Bailey
Bio
I am a freelance writer, playwright, director and lecturer from London. Self professed nerd, art lover and Neurodivergent, vegan since '16, piano player since 7 - let's see...oh and music, lots and lots of music
Stories (23/0)
How Rick And Morty Made The Case for the Mid-Season Finale Gambit
Gambling can be fun sometimes, especially if done safely, kids - and clearly, Dan Harmon Co-Creator of the series and writers of this episode, Albro Lundyand and James Siciliano are betting men. Season 7 episode 5 “Unmortricken” is the episode where Rick, or the Rick we follow at least - a parasitical grandpa/deadbeat father/Jerry tormentor gets everything he asked for. It has everything: lore, backstory, intrigue, revenge, and a dash of ghoulish overkill. Mainly of the spare ‘thematic’ Ricks. It’s very big, it’s very clever, but is it it? If any season of any show needed to prove itself, it is this one - and usually this is done by a traditional season structure. But since when has Rick and Morty played by the rules?
By Jessica Bailey5 months ago in Geeks
From Scratch: Cooking Every Night - A Threefold Plan To A Happier Mind.
Have you ever watched the episode of Fraiser where Niles, played to pompy perfection by the amazing David Hyde-Pierce guffs up trying to ask the wholesome and warm Daphne, played by lovely Jane Leeves, on a date? He fails miserably and wallows in misery until she shows up, chides him for not being ready for 'Da-Phylis' (the aforementioned made up on a whim name of the date he stutters over when trying hopelessly to just ask her out) and sets about whipping up a meal? They chop together to the timeless 30s classic 'Heart And Soul' penned by Hoagy Carmichael in a duet that is accomplished as it is adorable? No?
By Jessica Bailey6 months ago in Psyche
A 90s Baby's TV Schedule: Revisited
Lets set the scene. It's 1998. It's the height of 90s-ness in Britain - the lads and ladettes are having it large, Richard Ashcroft is barging into people impassively on the high street willy-nilly, bottled water is all the drink you need at the rave you've heard is happening in someone's lower field in one of the Shires, you're either Team Oasis or Spice Girls (Viva Forever) and 'Football's Coming Home' has been on a loop in your head for at least 6 months. Your shoe wear of choice is either a jelly shoe or a buffalo boot and at least every other top you wear has contains at least a strip of Phosphorescence.
By Jessica Bailey7 months ago in Geeks
My Favourite Front Man: Honouring Steve Harwell
Today we wake to the news of 90s alt behemoth, and lead singer of Smashmouth ,Steve Harwell's untimely death. As I have talked about on these pages, I am a music nerd. I'll listen to anything once, and many things twice. A lot of things, several. I've played piano since I was a child, so the ear was prepped, but still, Smashmouth remains the most pleasing to the ear for decades, and true masters of the story song - genre jesters doing their thing on every single one of their tracks, whilst staying true to their 1960s, easy listening vibe, even incorporating ska and punk elements, with that 90s edge. To me, true pioneers.
By Jessica Bailey8 months ago in Beat
- Top Story - August 2023
Olives and Chips; The Only True PairingTop Story - August 2023
Potato and an offshoot of a shrub. You cannot get more humble, or basic. And yet. Odes have ben written in their honour; paint to their pleasing Still Life credentials - they feature on every menu. But truly. When was the last time you stopped to revel in the joy that is the simple chip and olive? Fear no longer, cos here comes a little essay with my two cents to my most beloved of evening starters.
By Jessica Bailey8 months ago in Feast
Love Is A Funny Thing: One Scene From Euphoria
I was going to write, harsh and sharp-tongued on the alarming new trend of viewers' new found confidence and penchant for bodyslamming tv show and film creators when things don't go their way enmasse, on Twitter in a mindblowing and mass sense of inflated ego - you try writing it then, you wouldn't last five minutes, my guy, and I say that as a former creative writing student- or: 'Everyone's (Literally) a (Very emotional an ill-informed) Critic' - as the old adage goes. But I'm taking a page from Rue's book and turning a criticism into a praise.
By Jessica Bailey2 years ago in Beat
Top Five Dancing Videos of 2021 (So Far)
If it ain't broke...my previous article here on the best choreo of 2018 went down so well I've been planning an encore - on top of which the last twelve months - let's just say I had some time become a certified dance sequence fiend. Award shows, music videos, talk show appearances - you name it, and I was all over it so that you may have a few minutes interest ha. So settle in.
By Jessica Bailey3 years ago in Beat
Shake Your Bones With My Ultimate Spooky Playlist
So here in the UK, we kinda 'try' to Halloween, but it ends up a very lukewarm milky thing, hey, like our tea. Over in 'Murica you guys have it down pat - so much so that I kinda don't want to be there when it happens? Like y'all *get into it* into it, and I've never been good with gore. So when I saw this Challenge I honestly scrolled past, keen not even attempt to take the crown of our Amercian cousins.
By Jessica Bailey3 years ago in Beat
Some Thoughts on Squid Game
Squid Game is, no doubt an amazing drama, topping charts in every conceivable corner of the globe, boosting its impressive roster of talent, scope, scale and storytelling to an adoring international audience. and rightly so. But it isn't new. Taking the Hunger Games, Divergent, Black Mirror-ness away from it - there's really nothing unique about centuries old entertainment in the ages of emperors, kings and queens which means death to the have-nots for the blood lust of the haves, lion-in-amphitheatre style. And what's interesting about that particular chapter in history is that people could pay to watch it happen. How much does a Netflix account cost a month, by the way?
By Jessica Bailey3 years ago in Futurism
5 Best Disco or Disco Inspired Tracks of 2020
Ah yes, time for the semi-annual dragging of the '5 best...' trope out of my closet, dust blown of its surfaces. Only this time it its to be reimagined, attached to my ceiling to slowly rotate a constant flurry of light and disco fever over my impassioned, cold face as I sit in my dressing gown eating cereal at 10:10 pm.
By Jessica Bailey3 years ago in Beat
Love More Challenge: Process, Aesthetic and Decompression
Oh. You don't know the three P's? Where have you been living? Well never mind, and gather round children, so that you may learn..no but seriously I know you all might actually not know what it is, and fair play, so behold:
By Jessica Bailey4 years ago in Motivation
Women Who Inspire: Nina Simone Is Not Kidding Around
Ah, Eunice. Though not as widely hand-wrung as Sylvia Plath or Virginia Woolf, Nina Simone (born Eunice Waymon) is just as much a genius and just as much tragic. Her end isn't quite so widely sensationalised as those of her fellow female heroines but hers is somehow more personal to me, despite her and I being the most opposite two women could possibly be in our respective situations.
By Jessica Bailey4 years ago in Beat