maybe I'll fight Dracula or something

One of the greatest strengths (and joys) of Craig of the Creek, which we just finished watching at Cartoon Night, lies in its extensive, diverse, and memorable cast. Craig, Kelsey, and JP are at the heart of the show, but they were by no means the only ones at the creek who had significant character exploration and development. Here are my five favorite supporting characters, in no particular order.

1. Kit

At the risk of using the term “girlboss” unironically, Kit is… kind of a girlboss. She’s smart, she’s ambitious, she’s determined, and she’s unapologetically business-minded, a trait which is sometimes played for laughs but for which the narrative doesn’t seem interested in punishing her.

2. Isabella “Stacks” Alvarado

I’m pretty sure that if I’d watched the show when I was closer to the target age, I would have overidentified with Stacks, who had her own hideout in the library and yearned for someone to talk with about her favorite fantasy series. I’m so glad that she found that person and their storyline was one of my favorites.

3. Omar / The Green Poncho

I love the narrative framing around this character in his first few appearances – making it very clear why Craig and friends are in awe of him – as well as the slow reveal of his backstory and simultaneous (and very tentative) journey toward relating to the other kids as a friend instead of an icon.

4. Bernard Williams

I initially thought that I’d limit this list to Craig’s peers, but I have a soft spot for Bernard, and for repressed but caring older siblings in general. The Williams family dynamics are written with a lot of skill and care overall.

5. Maya

Most of us probably haven’t been armed enforcers for a self-styled preteen “king” who essentially ran his own cult, but a lot of us have probably had to re-evaluate our identity and purpose after a toxic friendship implodes, and at least try to mend fences with the people that we’ve hurt in the past. I love that none of this is easy for Maya but that she’s still willing to try.

I shared a partial draft of a crossover that I once imagined between Revolutionary Girl Utena and Tokyo Babylon.

In 2017, I took a temporary job with the events team at a local independent bookstore. Our responsibilities mostly consisted of selling books at launch parties and signings around the Boston area. My co-workers and the authors were nice, but I didn’t have too many opportunities to be truly starstruck. The one exception was the singer-songwriter Dar Williams, who had recently published a nonfiction book called What I Found In A Thousand Towns. I asked her to sign copies for Older Sister, who’d introduced me to Dar’s music, and for our dad; I was even more thrilled when she agreed to take a picture with me after the main event.

Like the Indigo Girls, whom I wrote about in this entry, Dar Williams was part of the soundtrack of my childhood, even before I knew her name. I still listen to some of my old favorite songs from time to time. I want to list five of the tracks that I consider the most formative, but please keep in mind that I am not a music critic or a music scholar, so I must resort at least once to “it made me feel a thing, just trust me, okay?”

1. “The Babysitter’s Here” (The Honesty Room, 1993)

This might have been the first of Dar’s songs that I ever learned, and as a young person who was very lucky to have several amazing older role models who made the prospect of growing up a little less frightening than it would have been otherwise, I related to it in the best way possible.

2. “The Ocean” (Mortal City, 1996)

For me, it’s all about the transition from “but the ocean can’t come to this town” to “this town is a song about you.”

3. “Are You Out There” (End of the Summer, 1997)

If I wanted to be cheeky, I could say that this song is about parasocial relationships. But in a more abstract way, it’s about the ways that music and other media can help us feel seen and build connections between people who will never speak to each other.

4. “Another Mystery” (The Green World, 2000)

I’m also quite fond of “Playing to the Firmament,” which starts this album, but I absolutely love the buoyancy and confidence in both the lyrics and the melody of “Another Mystery,” which closes it out.

5. “The One Who Knows” (The Beauty of the Rain, 2003)

This song is about watching the children in our care grow up, and the first time I heard it was at a folk festival alongside my parents, the summer before I started college, so it definitely pushed some emotional buttons. Dar dedicated the performance to adults who work with kids, and play just as important a role in their lives as their parents… sometimes more so. Part of me still wishes that I’d gotten the chance to remind her of that shoutout when I met her in person, because I was pretty sure that that was what I wanted to do with my life.