My super power is finding very fun, geeky rabbit holes online for you to enjoy losing yourself in: anime, games, music, fashion, videos… Hi Alice, I'm Wonderland.
So, I’m back in part two with even more Ace Attorney fan goodness during what I’ve dubbed Ace Attorney Week here on Royal Jelly. (By the way, it all started with an insanely cool Mystery Skulls song, “Money” set against a really good fan-made video of Phoenix and Miles arguing in the courtroom.)
Soon after becoming obsessed with that music video, I discovered an anime of the Ace Attorney video game had been created. I also highly recommend the musical I watched, so focusing on these for today! Hours and hours of enjoyment coming your way…
I swear, YouTube keeps changing my life… In a week or two, I think I wolfed down two seasons’ worth of Ace Attorney on YouTube. According to Wikipedia, the anime wasn’t well-received by fans because it didn’t show enough of the characters’ inner struggles, which are apparent in the game. (For example, Wright and Edgeworth have a complex relationship, and Edgeworth himself experienced a great deal of trauma as a child… I will try hard not to spoil you on what happened to him.)
Shopping for a new fandom to become obsessed with?
Then it’s time for you to immerse deep beneath the slightly wonderful, overly-dramatic, emotionally intense world of… don’t laugh now… Ace Attorney. In fact, consider this Ace Attorney Week on Royal Jelly. I’ll be sharing new dimensions of the fandom for you to savor, all week long.
So… How to begin? You’re either cackling mad laughter right now because you already know and have been exposed to this CAPCOM video game for Nintendo DS that came out a whiiile back in 2001, or you are wondering how someone even made a video game (at this point, I realize you’re still taking my word for it) about… an attorney? In the first place? But there is so much more involved in this. And I’m not just talking spirit mediums. There’s also a movie, an anime, a few musicals, tons of beautiful fan art, moving fanfiction stories… This week, you’re in for a great ride.
Once again, I’m bringing you something old-school, rad, borrowed and bad for your private perusal. Maybe good girls are looking for something old and something new, something borrowed and something blue—but that’s not me. Not by a long shot. So, let me take you on a tour far deeper into the exotic world of geekchic…
Old-school: Teach Me Tiger
First, something old school before we get into the rad and the borrowed and the bad. And, honestly, if you skip down to onlinekyne, I won’t be offended…
I was watching an episode of my favorite PBS shows, Call the Midwife, and noticed a song I’d heard before… well, it was a re-run, so this was my second listen. But it was that second time around that I decided I was going to look it up. It’s very whispery and seductive, very sweet and bold: Teach Me Tiger, by April Stevens. I hope it sneaks up on you and squeezes you the way it got to me.
What a great song to own. And it makes me want to gather up a collection of dreamy 50s songs for those lovely, quiet moments at home.
Now, onto onlinekyne, the guy who’s making-me-my-raddest (once those Powder Room D wigs he YouTube-recommended arrive in the mail)…
Now is the best time to visit the Hillwood Estate and museum here in Washington, DC. And as a DC native, I’ve got some tips to help you spend the day feeling like you’re floating around Downton Abbey… but in a real American great house.
So let me use my posh Julia Child voice, “Now that the last breathy gasps of summer are upon us and Washington, DC has tempered a bit, some overcast weather and temperatures just slightly beneath 85 degrees make it possible to enjoy the many lovely and historical estate houses in the area.”
And none is more fabulous, even more magical, than the Hillwood Estate in northwest DC. Walk through a ‘theater of history’ of Hillwood and explore Russian and French furniture, even royal artifacts, stroll around the soothing gardens, have tea and sandwiches, enjoy the Spectacular jewelry exhibition, rare orchids in the greenhouse, and have fun perusing super-fancy kitsch in the gift shop.
What should you do at Hillwood?
I’m a DC native, and according to my mother, I first went to Hillwood in the 80s, when I was a baby (a very posh baby, apparently). As an adult (now, I’m more geek-chic), I’ve been to Hillwood three times since. So, I can tell you, confidently, that this is a very special place that will not leave you unsatisfied. Likely, you’ll leave sure that you need to come back to Hillwood and look at something you were dazzled with but couldn’t get around to because you were so busy being dazzled by everything else.
Post wearing emerald brooch, posing with daughter on furs.
If you’re not a morning person, I recommend arriving around between 1 p.m.-noon. If you time things just right, you’ll be able to do things in the following order: the introductory film; a guided tour; tea and a walk around the gardens before you hit the gift shop. Ask when the guided tour and film begin at the Visitor’s Center when you arrive. And get ready to put that awesome little ‘fabulous!’ badge in just the right place on your shirt…
My mother and I saw the Hillwood introduction film that helps you place Marjorie Merriweather Post in recent history as the sole heiress to the Post fortune (think Grape Nuts cereal) who traveled around the world, was presented at the English court (yes, you read that right—just like Lady Rose on Downton Abbey), became a superior collector of rare French and Russian pieces and purchased the Hillwood Estate with the intention of cultivating it into a museum after her death. I can’t not say this—the effort and success she achieved is rather a lot like a pharaoh, like Cleopatra herself, building her pyramid her whole live through.
Our Guided Tour
The film and our tour guide (definitely get a guided tour if you can) helped impress upon us that Post was a great celebrity in the early 1900s, the richest woman in America during that time. So imagine a Kim Kardashian or Angelina Jolie type of celebrity, wandering all over the world collecting art, the paparazzi documenting her every move, every husband she marries, and all the best people coming to her home to see her desk once owned by a German princess, Marie Antoinette’s own brown leather swiveling dressing chair, a diamond-and-ruby-studded pocket watch belonging to Catherine the Great, czarina of Russia… And Post’s excellent taste in jewelry inspired styles later worn by other high society women, including Princess Diana herself. (This was a sparkling bracelet, part of the Spectacular! Exhibition of jewelry that’s been advertised all over DC this summer.) This is the legendary experience you do not want to miss at Hillwood.
Hillwood is the penultimate experience for anyone who likes shows like Downton Abbey or even wolfing down juicy historical articles on Wikipedia. I got into this funny habit lately of reading about the scandalous romantic lives of historical figures (you know, pull a name out the hat, like Mozart, and skip down to the ‘marriage’ or ‘life’ section of the Wikipedia article, and ontop of that, click on the names of all the people they have their affairs with—highly recommended), so I really enjoyed hearing about how strange Peter the Great was, and Catherine’s coup to throw him over when she was absolutely done with their ‘ghastly’ marriage… her lover helped, and then she went on to have, I think, eleven more lovers… and there a lot of great juicy stories inside of Hillwood, tied to the pieces Post chose to have in her collection. It is said to be a very feminine collection—furniture, dinner services—in that these are objects to enjoy close up and be adored for their details. Hillwood evokes a warm feeling, it is a home after all. It certainly does not have the feel of a cold museum.
So… Otakon just happened. This blog is all about expanding your horizons and trying things, geek-chic things that you might not really be familiar with. So let me ‘splain-to-you-the-Otakons…
Otakon came stealthily into DC like a ninja and maybe even alarmed some people who weren’t aware of this giant, Japanese pop culture-themed (really, anime is the biggest draw) convention that’s been in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area for a long time now. For years, it was in Baltimore.
Sadly, scheduling didn’t work out for me so I wasn’t able to go this year. Though, if you follow me on Instagram, you know that, at the least, I made it to the afterparty. I cosplayed as who else but Lottie Person from Snotgirl! Not an anime, but I swear that comic has serious anime vibes and is just waiting to get picked up by a major Japanese production group. My version of Lottie involved a Powder Room D wig (thanks for the tip, Onlinekyne!) and some accessories I already had at home, so it’s not an exact match. More of a… if Snotgirl was a geek-chic girl hanging out in DC version.
If you’re unfamiliar with Otakon and it sneaked up on you like it did me this year, I can answer some typical questions about it and cons (conventions) in general to help you get ready for next year…
Royal Jelly 