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FanfareFanfare Unplugged, Feat. The Awkward Fictional Dinner Party AwardsFor our final episode of season three, we have tossed out the script. By (possibly soon to be regretted) popular request, it’s just us, Monica and Emma, chit-chatting. We share our favourite fictional dinner parties of all time, our thoughts on how social media has changed the dinner party, tips for hosting the Emilies, and so much more. Pull up a chair, won’t you? Show Notes:Email us at fanfarefanmail@gmail.com! F, don’t H B! (You’ll know what we mean soon.)Monica Ainley DLV @monicaainleyDLV | Emma Knight...2023-08-251h 03FanfareAna Girardot Brings Alice Guy to DinnerFrench actress and director Ana Girardot has brought the mother of French cinema, pioneering early 20th century filmmaker Alice Guy, to dinner. Alice qui??? You might well be asking yourself. And to that we answer: precisely. Alice Guy was all but erased from the history of cinema until recent years, when a handful of biographers and documentarians have done some digging, and shown the world that some of the first narrative films in the history of cinema were written, directed, and produced by a woman. QUOI?? But why have we never heard of her? Why were her contributions to...2023-08-1148 minFanfareMolly Johnson Brings Billie Holiday to DinnerIn this episode we are joined by Molly Johnson, one of Canada’s most celebrated jazz vocalists, and her imaginary dinner guest, Billie Holiday. Born Elinore Harris in Philadelphia in 1915, Billie Holiday – a name she later chose for herself – rose from a very difficult childhood in Baltimore and then New York City to become one of the greatest and most influential jazz and blues singers of all time. Nicknamed “Lady Day,” Holiday was a key and very influential early voice in the civil rights movement, refusing to stop singing the song Strange Fruit, even under immense pressure and at significan...2023-07-2146 minFanfareBethan Holt Brings Queen Elizabeth II to DinnerIt has been a season of mysteries wrapped in riddles, and the subject of this episode is the crowning (crowned) jewel of private/public enigmas: Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Our real-life guest is Bethan Holt, Fashion Director for The Telegraph and author of The Queen: 70 years of Majestic Style. Queen Elizabeth II, who took the throne at only 25 and went on to have the longest verified reign of any female head of state in history, was famous for what she did not say–and sometimes, she communicated through her clothes. An acid green suit here, a Burberry headscarf th...2023-07-0754 minFanfareLaurel Pantin Brings Dolly Parton to DinnerGood golly, Miss Dolly is coming for dinner! Texas-born Los Angeles-based fashion editor (and brand consultant, stylist, and writer) Laurel Pantin might be hiding under the table caressing a sheep, so nervous is she about meeting the legendary Parton — whom she has admired since childhood for her ability to put the Sunday sunset feeling into songs, for her carefully maintained independence, and for a sense of style that proves she has the courage to remain unashamedly herself (among other reasons) — but with our collective six children under six present, and with a spread that involves six kinds of potatoes, we a...2023-06-2349 minFanfareBarnaby Thompson Invites Noel Coward to DinnerIn this episode, British film producer and director Barnaby Thompson (who produced both Wayne’s World and Spice World, among 30+ other films) brings “the quintessential Englishman” and one of the twentieth century’s most famous wits, Sir Noël Coward, to a breezy (and piquant, we hope) imaginary dinner in Jamaica, where Coward spent a large portion of his later life. Cho cho and snapper escovitch are on the menu, but so are baked beans and bangers and mash (although we’ll spare you the unsuccessful cold soup Coward apparently made for the Queen Mother on one of her visits to B...2023-06-0954 minFanfareRosh Mahtani Brings Dante Alighieri to DinnerRosh Mahtani, the founder of Alighieri Jewelry, began carving one piece of jewellery based on each canto of Dante’s Divine Comedy in 2014. Nine years later, she is a multi-platinum bijoutière based in London, and fans the world over are wearing a piece of poetry around their necks or in their ears. In this episode, Rosh, who spent her early childhood in Zambia and later studied French and Italian at Oxford, brings her 14th century Florentine muse to dinner. As you have probably already divined, it’s a hot ticket. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and exile...2023-05-2649 minFanfareOliver Gee Brings Bob Dylan to DinnerIn our Fanfare Season 3 opener, Paris-based podcaster and author Oliver Gee, the creator of The Earful Tower, bravely invites Bob Dylan to dinner. The prospect had us trembling in our boots (of Spanish leather) at first, not only because we love Dylan’s music and are not at all sure that we’ll manage to play it as cool as he always does–even in our imaginations!–but also because there is an entire world of Dylanologists out there, puzzling until their puzzlers are sore over this enigmatic giant of American music. Born Robert Zimmerman in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1941, Dylan is...2023-05-111h 01FanfareMargaret Atwood Invites Joan of Arc for Dinner *Bonus Episode*In this very special bonus episode, one of our dream dinner guests, Margaret Atwood, invites Saint Joan of Arc to dinner. A multi-award-winning poet, novelist, short story writer, critical essayist, graphic novelist, teacher, and environmental advocate, Margaret Atwood is the author of over 50 books published in more than 45 countries. Her most recent books include the aptly titled (for this dinner party) essay collection Burning Questions (2022), the poetry collection Dearly (2020), and The Testaments (2019), her Booker Prize-winning (she has won two of them!) sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Margaret Atwood’s imaginary dinner guest is both “a tough cookie” and another...2023-02-0254 minFanfareA Dinner Party for Peggy Guggenheim with Creative Director Alex EagleFor our last episode of season two, we are packing a picnic of bellinis, spritzes, and fritto misto and taking a time-travelling gondola from New York at the turn of the 20th century to Paris in the ‘20s, London in the ‘30s, New York in the ‘40s, and Venice in the ‘50s with Creative Director Alex Eagle and her guest, Peggy Guggenheim. An art collector, champion (and lover) of surrealist and modern artists, courageous rescuer of priceless works, and open-book memoirist, Peggy Guggenheim defied expectations at every turn, and helped to shape “modern art” as we know it. She always kept...2022-12-2357 minFanfareDinner for Mozart with Alexander Neef, Director of the Paris OperaFind yourself a velvet cape and an ornate set of binoculars, because for this episode’s imaginary dinner party, Alexander Neef, the Director of the Paris Opera and a recent recipient of one of France’s highest artistic honours, has summoned the supremely creative and surprisingly hilarious spirit of music’s original starboy: Wolfgang Amadeus (there are other names but we will spare you) Mozart. Born in 1756 in Salzburg, Mozart composed over 800 works spanning virtually every genre of his time before his untimely death at 35 (!). He was considered a prodigy from childhood, playing the harpsichord magnificently at the...2022-12-0954 minFanfareDinner in Space with Colonel Chris HadfieldToday on Fanfare we are joined by one of the world’s most accomplished astronauts, Colonel Chris Hadfield, to host an imaginary dinner party in SPACE complete with theme, strict dress code, a chocolate wall, and some pretty astonishing views. It’s a good time to learn to eat without a plate (or gravity), because earlier this week, NASA’s Artemis 1 mission reached the moon with the most powerful space rocket in history. While the Orion capsule was unmanned, if we want to be aboard the next one, we’d better start training. Hadfield has spent a total of 166 days in...2022-11-2554 minFanfareDinner for Eve Babitz in LA with Journalist Alessandra CodinhaEve Babitz, who immortalized L.A.’s louche ‘60s and ‘70s in books like Eve’s Hollywood and Sex and Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time, has been described as “the original artsy ‘it’ girl” (in LA Magazsine), as a “groupie-adventuress” (by herself, repeatedly) as a “dowager groupie” (scathingly, by Joan Didion’s husband John Gregory Dunn), and as “L.A.’s secret genius” (by the writer who is arguably responsible for her late-life renaissance, Lili Anolik, of Once Upon a Time at Bennington College fame). But who was she?? In this episode, L.A.-based writer and editor Alessan...2022-11-101h 02FanfareAn Imaginary Dinner Party for Katharine Hepburn with FIlm Development Exec Katharine FishIf your tastes run to Great Kates, you’ll want to listen in on this fictive feast. Katharine Hepburn, icon of the Fashion, Feminist, and Film varieties, has been summoned by Katharine Fish, Development Executive at Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s production company, HiddenLight, to help us understand how a strong-minded, highly-schooled, in-charge sort of woman––a wearer of pantsuits!–born in 1907 managed to go from “box office poison” in the late ‘30s to Hollywood gold until her death in 2003. Alongside our theories, we’ll be serving up American Sportswear at its best, lovingly dissected classic movies, Hollywood gossip, and waffles, as we...2022-10-2845 minFanfareAn Imaginary Dinner Party for Kazuo Ishiguro with Author Jessamine ChanMotherhood, you’ve been on our minds, to misquote Bob Dylan… so it’s only fitting that in this week’s episode Monica and Emma are joined by Jessamine Chan, the author of the New York Times Bestselling début novel The School for Good Mothers (2022). Together we cook up a not-at-all-dystopian (believe it or not) imaginary dinner party for one of our literary heroes, Kazuo Ishiguro. The 2017 Nobel Laureate for Literature (there will be champagne), Sir Ishiguro’s brilliant and wide-ranging oeuvre includes The Remains of the Day (1989, winner of the Booker Prize), Never Let Me Go (2005), and most recent...2022-10-1347 min
FanfareLive from Paris: Lauren Collins Brings Edith Wharton for DinnerNo one panic, but do frost the grapes on your hat because a somewhat exacting guest by the name of Pussy Jones – A.K.A. Edith Wharton – is coming to dinner. Summoned by Lauren Collins, the author of When in French: Love in a Second Language and a staff writer for The New Yorker, Edith Wharton is coming all the way from the Gilded Age – so the least Emma could do was meet Monica and Lauren in Paris for a live recording near Wharton’s apartment on Rue Varenne. The New York “aristocrat” and author of The House of Mirth (1905...2022-09-291h 08
FanfareAn Imaginary Dinner Party for Werner Herzog with Filmmaker Nathalie BiancheriAaand we’re back for a shiny new season of fantasy dinner parties, dress codes, recipes and cultural icons – in-person and imaginary. To kick off Season Two, we are joined by filmmaker Nathalie Biancheri, the Italian-born, London-based writer and director of the conversation-starting 2021 drama Wolf, starring Lily-Rose Depp. Nathalie’s imaginary dinner guest is none other than the great Werner Herzog in all his dead-pan, anti-capitalist, prolific filmmaking glory. There may or may not be boiled shoes on the menu. Show Notes:Write to us at fanfarefanmail@gmail.comMonica Ainley DLV @mo...2022-09-1556 min
Fanfare*Bonus Episode* An Imaginary Dinner Party with Joan Didion Featuring Special Guest Ellie PithersWe missed you! And so we have hosted a surprise imaginary dinner party to tide us over until we meet again for season two. In this episode we sit down in a crumbling Hollywood mansion with essayist, journalist, author, playwright, and all-around cool customer Joan Didion to talk migraines, disguises, self respect, reporting on one’s own grief, John Wayne, and much else. Joining us for the whole Corvette ride, from parsley chopping through to a final bourbon, is British Vogue Contributing Editor, digital consultant, friend, and fellow Didion enthusiast Ellie Pithers. Pack your almonds and notebooks and come on...2022-05-0551 minFanfareAn Imaginary Dinner Party with Leonard Cohen Featuring Special Guest Denise DonlonHe’s been our man for some time (well, one of them), so it only made sense that for our season finale, we would dream up an imaginary dinner party for Leonard Cohen. With a Montreal-and-Hydra inspired menu and some rags, feathers, and pinstripes (maybe a Famous Blue Raincoat, why not), we plan a soirée that you won’t want to miss. We have the honour and pleasure of sitting down for a glass of Chateau Latour and a hot banana pepper with Denise Donlon, a friend and colleague of the late Cohen’s. As a host, producer, and rec...2022-02-251h 03FanfareTrending: A Makeover Story + An Interview w/ Trend Forecaster Iza DezonEpisode Description: In this episode, it’s Emma’s turn to get schooled… about fashion. First, a survey of Monica’s industry friends yields many creative answers to the question, “What are you going to wear in 2022?” Next, Monica provides Emma, who has been in lockdown since 1900 or so, with a simple, durable formula for applying actual clothing (and not just to the top half of oneself, Zoom style) and liking it. Then, all the way from São Paulo, Brazil, we are joined by Iza Dezon, a specialist in forecasting trends, who shares her top three macro trends for 2022 and...2022-02-1155 minFanfareThe Food Episode: Live from Cafe Pimpin in Paris + Stush in the Bush in JamaicaIn this episode, Monica calls on Emma and some food industry friends in France and Jamaica to help her figure out what tack to take in the eating department this year. While plant-led recipes are obviously the ordre du jour for both planetary and dietary reasons, dreaming them up can sometimes feel daunting. Conveniently, Emma has had not one but two cookbooks published in the last few years, and is on hand with an easy breakfast smoothie recipe that will please grown-ups and kiddies alike. Then, your trusty hosts venture into the field to gather more ingestible intel. Monica, to C...2022-01-2852 minFanfareIs This the Golden Age of Television?Are we living in the Golden Age of television? Or are we just addicted to the binge? In this episode, an Omi-bliterated Monica and a toddler-addled Emma make it their New Year’s resolution to watch more television (manageable goals, people!). We call upon Hannah J Davies, a critic and culture writer for The Guardian, to be our TV guide. Hannah takes us on a tour of the infinite content available on streaming platforms, and brings an inside lens to our burning questions about television today. We discuss the curiously compelling antiheroes of Billions and Succession, the just-in-time cultural ca...2022-01-1441 minFanfare(North) Americans in Paris: An Interview with Adam GopnikErnest Hemingway first arrived in Paris in December of 1921. One hundred years later, Emily in Paris is back for another season. Why, chers amis, do we continue to be captivated by stories of Americans in Paris? To get to the bottom of this question, Monica and Emma enlist the help of one of our favourite writers (about Paris and in general): the author and essayist Adam Gopnik. A New Yorker staff writer since 1986, Gopnik moved with his wife and infant son from New York to Paris in 1995 and began filing real-life French dispatches under the New Yorker’s then-editor Ti...2021-12-301h 10FanfareHot Fiction for Cold NightsDisclaimer: You may want to plug in your earphones for this one–it’s a bit spicy. In our second episode, Emma and Monica attempt to defrost the long, cold nights of winter with a conversation about sex in fiction. After a spirited game of two truths and a lie, we discuss our bedside reads of the year, from Sally Rooney’s new take on steamy millennial malaise in Beautiful World, Where Are You to Tia Williams’s Seven Nights in June, by way of Bridget Jones, Anne Boleyn, Jane Eyre, Jilly Cooper, Emma’s mom Colleen Flood, and more (see...2021-12-171h 01
FanfareAn Imaginary Dinner Party with Nora Ephron Featuring Special Guest Pandora SykesIn our inaugural episode, we host an imaginary dinner party complete with menu and wardrobe for someone whose work we have been fanning out over since we were mere children in safari shorts and sweater vests: the journalist/writer/director/New York wit extraordinaire, Nora Ephron. Emma plans the menu, Monica plans the fashion, and special guest and fellow superfan Pandora Sykes arrives in time for pie. Trust us, even if you’ve never seen When Harry Met Sally or You’ve Got Mail, you won’t feel like a wallflower at this Nora Ephron fan orgy.**You’ll...2021-12-0442 minFanfareTrailerFanfare is a fortnightly culture review podcast with fashion journalist Monica Ainley de La Villardière and cookbook author and Greenhouse co-founder Emma Knight. In every episode we discuss the books, movies, shows, and etceteras that are inspiring us, troubling us, or just getting us talking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-11-2800 min