librarypunk - 149 - Party Girl (1995) commentary track

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

We're doing a commentary track for Party Girl! Download this and manually sync up while you listen. You can also download a version with the Party Girl audio ducked while we talk here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/krw8v6bq8hh5d6b2svmif/149final.mp3?rlkey=925eywxqlana90acil7eeaqsd&st=hbgjxs3n&dl=0  You can also join the discord to see other ways to enjoy this track! Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG Transcript download: https://pastecode.io/s/wxnjkfox 

that you can line up with a legitimate version of the film. So that way, this won't be such an issue, but we'll try it anyway. Three, two, one, go. Okay. They don't do, like, production company intros like this anymore. They don't? I don't really notice. We lost something when they stopped.

Yeah. Well, it's because I'm mostly watching older movies with you. So every time I see a new movie, it's from like 1987. Don't read me like this. It's the same. James got called out. You'll watch Orson Wales movies and you'll like it. But I fucking love Lady Bunny.

I love this animation. It's always so ballfighter for the Super for the Sega Genesis animation. Apparently, Parker Posey plays this like Southern Lady in White Lotus or something, and everyone's all obsessed with her. And I'm like, bitch, go watch Party Girl. Yeah, because people know this movie. It's not just librarians who love this movie. Yeah, my roommate loves this movie. Yeah.

There she is. I want to know whose, like, aunt was a librarian and inspired them to make this movie, you know. Well, yeah, I think it wasn't, I don't know if it was anyone's, because we looked this up when we did the Party Girl episode. The one thing that I like is Carl. But yeah, like a lot of the clothes were like borrowed and all the people in the party scenes are just local clubbers and stuff. Yeah. It's very charming. Yeah, but I'm just like, why did they?

pick librarians, you know, that's, that's what I meant. Yeah. I've never been able to like figure, figure out who was like related to a librarian. I think they were just like, no, this is, it just makes sense. The opposite of being a party girl is being a librarian, I guess. I just, I like how this movie is about like a straight relationship and then everything about it, everything else about it is gay. Like if you describe this movie on a paper, it's like,

a former teacher and a library page fall in love and the happy ending is grad school. You wouldn't expect the rest of this movie. Girmudemadim is so fun in this movie. I don't know if it's because he's so young, but I feel like they could have gotten a little more out of him. Every time I rewatch it, I'm like, yeah, he could have like been a little like a love rival or something, a little more. pirated video

sets. I love it. That's one of the charges. I know, I was just looking at them. They're great. Half my commentary on this is just going to be the clothes.

I mean, that's valid. You're so valid. This is a fashion run. Mary. The listeners can't see, but I am gagged by this outfit

that Parker Posey's wearing. Little rainbow purse. I like how she has to hold the thing closed, like the leopard print jacket. They put tooth picks and falafel. Don't put fucking put toothpicks in your falafel, dude. He's white gentrifiers of falafel. Oh, Baba Ganush. I love Bobby Ginoosh.

Arizona tea. Still 99 cents. I like that kind of music. Yeah, I do. if it's him. The way you say Lebanon and Arabic is Lubnan. Fun fact. The graffiti fronted library.

It's your Arabic fun fact with Jay. There will be several of those in this episode, kids. Lyndendorf is such a great last name. It sounds like a type of cheese. I like how they choose what books they bring up in the movie directly to like show people's personalities Hannah Arendt

Excuse me Where's Hannah Arendt? She's obsessed with Camus. Her enemy The stink eye In the TV show I love her fucking cravat It's like a

I got a pearl clasp It's a It's a cravat pin you swine How does it function? What does it do? It pins. Uh-huh. It's like a tie pin.

Sequence. It's like, hundy ass what I say sequence. This is why libraries don't like to collect manga, because things get out of sequence. He's not a dick. He's a patron. Yeah. He's a dick. Yeah.

Not mutually exclusive, actually. It's a good way of looking at it, though. We love our patrons and also their dicks, you know? Yep. In the TV show, they, they just do something so strange with their dynamic. I want them to kiss. Which is already strange in this movie. Libraries are a prison.

This is me going to Fouca mode. Mm-hmm. Ooh, get another joke. Goals are a prison. Libraries are a prison. The purple and the red always throws me. Oh, I love GOTA. That's just me.

I'm like, where's the GOTA jacket? She just starts treating Leo like a pet. Did you see she has a matching hat for the leopard coat or cheetah coat? She'd be a gray cataloger. I never mind, it's a flower hat. Why is his shirt tucked into his pants like that? It's like a nerd. the 90s were a mistake.

People used to tell you to tuck your shirt in all the way into the 2000s. They're just like, oh, should never be untucked. This is me at every conference I go to where I dance with the old ladies who want people to dance with them, but no one does. At least at music library conferences, there's always a swing dance. And then there's always, like, old ladies that are like, dance. And nobody wants to dance. So I was like, I'll dance with the old lady.

And then they're like, oh, you're such a dance. good to answer. My thank you. Is the music is the music library conferences? Yeah, that's what I said. Okay.

I didn't know if he said music conferences or music library because I just share a library all the time. I've never been to a music conference. Oh, they have matching coats. The sink was busy. She sounds like those like finance bros. I love the little shit eating. grin.

Not getting married today. Thank you, everyone for coming to the wedding. I can never do that, Patter song. Have you seen people do the not getting married today song from company? It's insane. It's a different musical.

I'm glad we... She's the one who tells him to say he was in London. Yeah. I'm really glad that we got over Electroswing as a society. Uh-huh. There's some good remixes that come through every once in a while. No.

You can't vogue to Electra Swing. Leo is me whenever some drunk person in a bar asked me to hold something. I'm like, this is about to go in the trash. The disco ball necklaces. Why is it wearing dog tags? Because it's the 90s. Yeah. I'm thinking of that as more as like a post-9-11 thing.

Desert Storm happens. in the 90s. Yeah, I guess that's for, yeah. I guess that's when that started. Yeah, that's what wore my dad's of Ed in, is Desert Storm. Got Desert Storm trading cards. I'm glad we don't want to do this shit anymore.

It was six. I got to use the like microfiche catalog at work to look at scanned catalog cards. It was so cool. Nice. Yeah. I got to. have my own little sexy microfiche montage.

It was great. There's one like in my department. Cards. There's something. They were like stamping cards. I think for like ILL or transfers or something. So,

I'm okay. Okay. She said that right. They're just speaking like really formally. Do you think she got that from the library, guys? Yeah, that's exactly where. And she's speaking out. the way in half.

So the way you like greet in Arabic is you go, sabah, and then the other person goes sabah noor. But if it's at nighttime, you go masaheha. And then the other person goes messachanur. And then Khaefar Hattik or Hattik is like, how are you? Ik or act is the ending that says you.

Ismi Mary is, my name is Mary. she was introducing herself yeah whoa or you could go an ismi the e ending is the

personal possessive ism ism is name so is me is my name and there's no copola

copola in Arabic like there's not in Japanese so there's no like there kind of is but you don't really say like

my name name is. Something is just my name and then. Oh, okay, here we go. In Modus Center, that's Yed. I don't remember that one. Ein, yep. Mouth is also

um, um, um, thumb, fun, something like that. Dialects are fun. Yay. Oh, I love this outfit. It's so good. Gross.

transitioning into. I'm just this dude with longer hair. Like his belt buckle. His earrings in his right ear. He's not you. No, he is. The right ear is the bottom. Oh, yeah, you're right. Although I have things in both my ears right now because I'm stretching my earlobes. But I'm going to, after I get my surgery Monday, I'm going to

eventually you see about getting a right Traegis pierced. You and your Traegis. I love this shirt too. That's why you ask a follow-up question. Reference interview. She hasn't gone to library school. She hasn't learned about the reference interview yet.

She looks so done. That's true. Cold. How much Camus could they need? Yeah. Oh, no. No. It's the sea.

The most cringeworthy scene in the entire movie. Like there's some bad orientalism in this movie, but I am actively calling Edward Saeed right now. My man is dead, but I am calling him anyway. Oh. It always goes longer than you think it is. It's so bad. No.

Don't. Don't do this. Oh my God She's just doing like Really racist vogueing It's real bad Is it over yet? Oh fuck

Is the egg carton on fire? I think it was, yeah. Yeah, it's smoke coming out of the oven. Sometimes it amazes me how bad people can be at cooking. I don't know, cooking's easy. You just follow directions. It's not that bad, just scrape it. That's a real poor kid's sentence right there.

Just follow the instructions. My grandma taught me how to read recipe cards. a kid and like this is how you follow a recipe and I went okay and that's how I learned how to cook you just follow a fuck recipe got read all the ingredients and then you get shit together and you read through the recipe once to make sure you know what you're doing and then you do it did she read the book says a woman who didn't know what it was 24 hours ago I think she did read yeah oh yeah she's got it I think I'm an existentialist I'll shacked up and cozy, right?

My macktail I mean, it's pretty good Stand up for yourself, Leo, you should get paid for work Knock back, knock I want those boots This is like entirely my style of boots See, that's kind of boots I like The hair piece

The paperclip necklace She's cooking So you had to do in bars before phones Stair into the distance with Stogey Breaking in via the fire escape, classic It amazes me that the window wouldn't be locked Wild Time

Like where's the facilities people Where's the security Her leaving it unlocked would suggest foresight And I think the whole point of the scene is that she did not have that ding-dong ding-ting-ding-tong I just realized they set this record thing up earlier because he asks, do you like this music? Mm-hmm.

So I assume it's one of his songs. Yeah. It's the kind of things I don't pick up on until I've seen the movie about eight times. I just have no retention of what happens in movies. Yes, I know. The hottest. That whole library is going to smell. The library smell like we do.

anyway. That's a good point. Do we? Everybody smokes weed in the library. People got mad at me for saying I was smoking weed in the BPL bathroom on blue sky. People are fucking nerds on blue sky. And then the mayor's communications director followed me. It looks like Kamala Harris.

It really does. It really does. Please do not eat, smoke, or drink in the stacks of the library. rolls up with a joint and a beer. I need some patrons like that. I'm not even good at the Dewey Decimal system. That was like in cataloging. Like I always grasped Library of Congress okay.

And then like Dewey Decimal was like, what the fuck is this shit? Those introductory essays in the cataloging rules are always like a trip. They're pretty good. I never had to read those. Love at first sight. I mean, to be fair, she is hot. Training montage.

See the little book hiding behind the two stacks. You got to have the books flush with the edge of the shelf. Not shoved all the way back. Not shoved all the way back. The books just squished in. Yeah. God, that would happen with like the really thin music scores all the time and they would just get pushed back. Yeah, you got to put thin stuff like that.

filing cabinets or something. No, they were in pamphlet binders. It's just so many of them were crammed into a shelf that they would get like, and they were like thicker on one side than on the other because of like the thickness of like the pan binding, like how that works. And so like, yeah, like you put them in pan binders so that they can be on the shelf. You might be in there, boy. That is kind of cute.

Not going to lie. It's extremely cute Chow Is that the Hannah or rent guy? I think it is Maybe not His hair looks a little different It would make more sense for him

To be the one who is screwing up the shelves later Yeah Why are we wasting time with the de bic decimal system to be honest Because it's hard to replace Little too hard in the other direction, girl Take your break are they unionized It's a good manager

I think the NYPL is union but maybe only recently I don't know I'm on the case NYPL union yeah New York Public Library of Local 1930

they are AFS me Nice They've been around since 1968. So yes, they were union when this movie was made.

Their union president in when was this, 1993? Right? I don't know. Well, anyway, Raymond Markey was union president

from 1992 to 2004, which is back, You shouldn't be union president for that long. That's an undemocratic union. I'm calling you out in my PL local librarians guild, 1930. It's over a decade. The union president.

You need that institutional power so that you can hire goons. Their president before that was Marion Poro from 1980 to 1992. Also too long. You need a rank and file caucus to reform. Apita to something The fact that none of these like food people are wearing gloves is bothering me as a former food for her

I mean wearing gloves depending on the environment like is worse than just having clean hands because the gloves get dirty I used to work in restaurants like you don't wear gloves in restaurants really you just make sure you have clean hands because you're touching

depends on the Yeah I don't like wearing gloves in kitchen People usually get worse hygiene practices When they're wearing gloves Because they feel like Oh my hands are clean

I'm wearing gloves And so they touch more shit That's why you're supposed to change them out Between every task Oh Next time I go to a falafel place I'm going to get falafel with hot sauce

the side of Bob Ganesh and a seltzer. I really want Babba Ginoosh now. I know, me too. There's this Middle Eastern place near the library that's apparently owned by like Lebanese Palestinian folks. And they got Boban Ganesh there. It's so pure. Rabbits can scream.

Ask Justin how he knows this. Justin's like actually encouraging. I'd never had a rabbit scream But that's why you can't have a kettle You never point a knife at somebody Just yelling at people Don't fucking point a knife at a person What's his shirt? I dreamed I was

I don't know She weren't chain mail Pants suit She's upgraded She had that wheelie chair I like how it shows that both of them are really bad at making their relationship work I like how chill they all are

Pelopal montage. Are those purple tights with purple knee-high socks over them, or are they tights that are made to look like knee-high socks? I know. The Adidas heels. I hate that stupid hat. The pilgrim hat. So bad. It's not a pilgrim hat.

Which is bad. A pilgrim hat of beanie. A skirt to match the rainbow purse. The jeans are good I hate this scene 500s tribal I always mean to show this scene to Audrey This scene makes me so mad

Fuck the day This is not made for music At all No it's not And then he doesn't know it Yeah they were in order The only thing useful she did is put the stickers on Yeah

This is what I imagine whenever someone's like, what's a good system for organizing a personal library? And I'm like, you're going to do this and you shouldn't do this. Yeah. Also, hot take, this is just what most reparative cataloging projects are. Is catalogers imposing a system without actually consulting communities? I mean, like, this is the words that's right. And it's like, did you ask a person? Or is that what you think is right?

It's the latter most of the time. So it's just cataloging with like people first language as a whole driving ideology? Yeah. I would love to do people first language with like reclaimed slurs. I love Sylvester. I'm glad he's been Sylvester. Disco classics? I guess.

He starts getting into like the high energy. Sean Rizow and worked with Patrick Cowley a lot. Yeah, he just created a poll list. He didn't find any of that shit. She did. I really don't understand the point of this scene. It's just awkward. Like, yeah, I'll shower naked with my friends, but I'm gay.

We do that. Mood. You miss the obvious joke to, squirt it on her, right? You got to have like a visual come shot in a scene like this. Incest.

Why do you turn the lights off if they're still open? Oh, they are closed. I always thought she was signaling him to not send him over. Oh, this is when they fuck in the romance language of section, right? Yeah. They ruin a first edition.

Why does they, why do they have a first edition just out. That's their own goddamn fault. A kid could have sneezed on it. It also gets sun damage. Yeah, no shit. Like, yeah, the NYPL has some, like, they've got like a Gutenberg.

That's like out where people can look at it, like outside of the rose room. Land of Milk and Honey. Like how he suddenly like, attracted to her again and as soon as he finds out she's a librarian for some reason. This is part of the classism in this movie. It's kind of weird. So like just a clerk and he's not a food vendor. He's a former teacher. Right. He can't just be a falafel vendor, right? For some reason that reminds me the time, a guy in the drive-thru, the worker, Taco Bell, drive-thru was like, oh yeah, you're that hot librarian.

and I was like, this is not the time nor place. Do hot librarians get free churros? I did not. It was extremely awkward. I know. I'm a hotball. I can only call me that if I'm getting something out of it. Right?

Like, I want my goddamn nacho fries. That's when I was like, maybe I need to move out of public service. It's Yemen. Cut scene. I love that. What's the best ending in this movie? I doubt comics that a print. Yeah.

I doubt he's set of print. I doubt Dick is that a print. You know what? The place of least concern to find a used condom is in the trash can in a public library. Just saying. Found them in worse places. Better than the urinal. Librarian script.

It is very readable. This is me in every essay. in library school. Trashing. Now Phil Dewey. Just talking about how sexist librarianship is.

And like how the master's degree used to be a like a vocational thing, right? Like a little certificate you got. Yeah, it was like a, it started out as like a two-week program. Master's degrees were shorter back then. You could get them right out of high school.

Yeah. You like a master's of accounting, which just meant you did basically like, it's what we would call associate degrees now. But then as times changed, people wanted to keep calling the masters, so they updated the requirements. Only a judge can evict you. Get to know the neighbors in your building. Form a tenant union. Don't sell your go-tie. to form a union instead.

She can steal more. Dead mom club. I got a kimono that my mom got when she lived in Japan. I'm thinking about getting a kimono because it's so dang hot in this house. Just needs something a little flowy or like a gin bay. She looks like she's wearing like a fencing outfit. Right? I like the sweater.

Mm-hmm. Sweeter looks cozy. It's very... It looks like a fencing outfit. It's like the Harry Met Sally kind of poofy white. You're a teacher. That like V shape in the front? Mm-hmm.

Like of the sweater, very 90s thing. I like his gold zipper. Yeah, that's like... Black and gold. It's a combo. He's wearing like all dickies, like stuff. Like it's all like workwear. I had a jacket, like, exactly like that.

Uh-huh. I used to be way into Dickies. Although, like, cool anarchists have these, like, Dickies overalls and, like, Dickie's pants. Dickie's pants are good. I know. I want a pair. Yeah, one of my coworkers stole my Dickie's jacket. That's not cool.

Oh, no. Not Orientalism part two, Electric Bugle-Loo. Yep. This is CAFIA. At least he's got a Palestinian kifia on, but... This one was that guy a bartender. I don't know. Oh, right, she's making her friends work for her.

That's right. I love those guys. They're acting like freaks on a leash. Why'd she make him dressing like that? It hurts. The necklace. I forgot about the necklace. Yep.

An evergreen insult in the queer community. I get a last name. She's such a little cop. Why did she like charge for all of her parties instead of... It's a rent party. She's trying to raise money for rent. That's how she's charging. Well, she already got the money for rent.

Foreshadowing. Spitting wisdom. Mm-hmm. He's getting better. Also, I guess he just kept that album that, that Mustafa brought over that one time. Yeah. There's this great band camp called,

I think it's like Habibi funk. And they like put out all these like old like funk records and shit from like the Middle East from like the 60s and stuff, 60s and 70s. It's great. Isn't there something called like Bedouin tapes or something? Oh, were they? It's like a genre. But it's like where it's like on like cassettes and like on like

Yeah. On like 3s on cell phones and shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Was it Bedouin? That's, but yeah,

it's like cassettes and phone stuff. Parker Posey's allowed to say faggot. They give her permission. Staring out of a bearded dragon. The lizard. He's just hanging out. This is very well-behaved bearded dragon. Coup would be jumping all over the fucking.

in place. Although I have walked into like pet smart with him on my shoulder before. She loves doing this move. Yeah. She's like very bad at voging is what it is. And then she like is orientalist with a mind-altering substance of she on that's kicking in that quickly. Mm-hmm.

Something that I'll make her unborn children grow gills. Unless Dean Shrooms take longer to kick in. It's like that. photo of all the girls holding cups looking at the camera that people use as a meme I've got a kaffia like that I've got that red one and then I've got like a black one not the black and white one just a black one go home girl quick lock it quick bam it turns into a horror movie for like 30 seconds yeah those are all the books she ruined by leaving the windows open I think some of those are bookstore discards.

I just noticed one of them had the title page ripped off or the front cover off. Apparently there's a word in Russian for like guys who just do this. Are always carrying things upstairs? No, who like sleep in the stairwells. Milo Edwards had a comedy bit where he was talking about those types of guys in that word. And he's like, oh yeah, I had a guy like that in my building. Turns out he lived on the fifth floor. He just never liked to go into his apartment.

to get drunk and read Dostoevsky in the stairwell all day. Library instruction. It's a sign pignata. That's you. Uh-huh. But I didn't go to Columbia. This is me now. Academic librarianship is for the bourgeois.

I used to be the enemy. I've now seen the arrow of my ways. I'm kidding, kind of, mostly. The queer falafel stand? Word, where can I go? Where can I get me some queer falafel? Then I worked in Utah, the like falafel truck on campus. They loved me.

I want that jacket. And then there was like a good falafel pita place when I worked in New Hampshire. And because I could say, shukran. To say thank you. They were like, hey. And I always brought co-workers there for lunch. And they love me. They're like, hey, it's you.

I was like, yeah, it's me. That's a great story. Yeah. I like his little cowboy shirt. I like how Kurt's just having a good time. See the pinata? Kurt's just there. Like, I like how he calls her Mary,

but not in the timbre or cadence as if it was her name, but as a gay person calling anybody marry. I think he's just Italian like that. No, he's just gay. Mary. Mary, those clothes were Price, like, like he says, doesn't say it like it's her name. Well, he says it like Mario.

No, that's just how gay people, they call each other Mary. I think he's just Italian like that. No. Right in the same. the comments. Gay or Italian. This is our new game on the show. What does this hat say?

Ask something? It's open. Never do that. Come back with a warrant. Come back with a warrant. Do not talk to cops. Call your lawyer immediately. Even lawyers like are like shut the fuck up around cops.

Like shut the fuck up. Just don't say anything. shut the fuck up. He looks like what's his face, the actor. You know, in my experience with middle-aged ladies, she would actually probably be the most enthusiastic in that room. Not going to lie. I'm serious about graduate school.

I wish I were saying I was serious about graduate school to do with a jock strap thrusting around me. Arthur loves to just like sit and put his butt. on a corner on my laptop and then have his tail go across the keyboard. See? Yep. Yeah, he can see your tail. You're a good boy.

The poor stripper. Lieberry. Mm-hmm. I'm body piercing. I'm body. See, it is me. Sex addiction. That's what I want to know.

See, this guy's asking the right questions. in my experience convincing someone you actually do when I go to library school is that hard when I decided I want to be a librarian I told my boss at the music library hey I think I want to be a librarian and she was like let me take you out for a drink and then took me out for a drink and sat me down after she bought me a drink he went so why do you want to be a librarian and I told her And she was like, that's the right answer. She's like, if you had told me it was because you liked books or reading or something,

I would have told you no, that I wouldn't help you. And then she did help me. She helped me with all my applications and helped me pick programs. I had to interview a librarian for one of my applications. And she, like, connected me with one of her friends who was a wine librarian in California. And I got to interview him. That was cool. I never got to do any neat

librarian interviews that's not true I interviewed the Judaica librarian at UF they have a separate Judeica library I think I think it was UF yeah there were a lot of like Judaica and like Hebrew language

cataloging positions when I was like first looking for jobs. But yeah, this was for the University of Illinois. They required an interview with a librarian. The Lady Bunny itself. So what's everyone's favorite, like, thing about this movie? Like, yeah.

I mean, the fashion's always fun. Yeah. Hannah Arendt buff. Hannah Arendt. The It Twins made Marion. Kurt. Carl. See, and like, so the

The steps that she says She goes through to help Mustafa Like, the way that I was taught To do reference Was like you would walk someone through How to do everything You wouldn't necessarily do their research for them

Um, You would like walk them through and like show them the skills or like here this is then where you would find this information and then they could always ask for more help but that's like usually what subject specialists are for is if you're getting like really in depth right yeah but she's mostly pulling like writing

well she's mostly pulling ready reference though it was like he knew what he was asking for he just needed certification and navigating the city Yeah, ready reference is kind of a lost art. Like, I learned about ready reference, but I feel like I'd never had to actually do ready reference. The closest I can think is, like,

when I was at the music library, I would have to, like, point people to, like, yeah, like, here's the, I think they're the Castellos. They're these, um, castels, that's what they are. They're, um, these books of, um, uh, like for all the Italian and German operas and stuff

it's like the pronunciations of everything for singers um so I always had to point people to those um and those were like on the reference shelf um

Utah had a lot of stuff about like patents so and like standards like standards books so I had to like know where those were to appoint people to them but I don't work with the public anymore though I'm looking to see if there's actually

looking to see if there's actually Teddy Rogers listed anywhere it was Teddy Rogers right yeah Teddy Available on relativity recordings. I've never noticed that.

The original soundtrack album Notice. Yeah? I'm going to be looking for that more. Oh, yeah. That was in movies all the time in the 90s and early odds. It's because the movie soundtrack

slapped. Yeah, I feel like 90s. Oh, yeah, it's spec. Oh, God. Oh, God, I forgot about this. Ah. Why did they do this? I'm looking at first.

who Teddy Rogers is. I like search for Teddy Rogers and Wikipedia and the party girl. Shut up. Is that not a real person? I don't think so. Maybe. Okay.

Well, that's party girl. I'm going to try this out. Cool. We did it. Hopefully it worked this time. Yeah. All right. You're stopping it now.