Welcome back to The Monthly Hoot: Witch, Please Productions' Newsletter!
Nov 07, 2025
Hey lovely people!
Somehow we’re in the final months of 2025 (rude)! Tuesdsay was Election Day, and I’m engaging in some tentative hopescrolling after some big wins in NY, Virginia, and California.
This is our second-to-last Monthly Hoot of the year, wow!! Let us know if there’s anything new you’d like to see in the newsletter in 2026?
In the meantime, we still have some fun tricks up our sleeve for the rest of the year (and we’re already planning some exciting things for January, too…no spoilers!). Take care and stay cozy!
Hugs,
Gaby — and Hannah, Marcelle, Coach, and Zoe
We got deep into The X-Files with guest Leigh Dyrda! Leigh (she/her) is an academic whose research interests include EcoGothic, a field that probes the eerie overlap of ecocriticism and Gothic. We figured Leigh would be a perfect guest to dig into this show about alien-human hybrids, monsters that defy taxonomical definition, and cancers courtesy of government microchips, and we were right.
Just in time for Halloween, we dug into The Craft (1996)! If you went through a witch phase, are currently a practicing witch, or you’re just filled with righteous fury, then this episode is for you.
Cold opens! Game of Thrones discussions in 2025! Long check-ins! Material Concerns is the gift that keeps on giving. In these Part I episodes, Hannah, Marcelle, and Coach do some Mailbag Samplers, Creature Reports, and Oops All Oops, and other segments you know and love—and start a new one, Patreon Party.
As always, get part two of all Material Concerns episodes on Patreon!
Mark your calendars! We’re putting out an episode about the next and final installment of Wicked. November 25th! Spread the word as we want to be in conversation with other viewers and fans! No better time to revisit our episode Wicked x Paratexts with Leena Norms.
baby Linus and the beautiful tree outside Gaby’s bedroom window
Something about November makes me want to listen to jazz and instrumentals. I don’t know why! Maybe it’s something about the shorter days, but here’s a collection of some particularly autumnal tunes to enjoy. Listen on Spotify here and Apple Music here!
I got a very bad head cold in September that continues to lurk within my sinuses (rude) and I’m going to tell you about the little treat that got me through a week of sick days: Tiny Bookshop. If you’re a fan of cozy resource management games (my TOP genre), you’re going to love this one. The premise is that you’ve just relocated to a small seaside town to open a book cart. Every day you choose your location and stock your inventory and then head off to sell books. The game mechanics are very simple: you acquire and stock used books based on genre, use your profits to upgrade your cart with more shelves and various fun accessories, recommend books to customers, and unlock storylines with townspeople as you go from newcomer to town fixture. My favourite mechanic is the recommendations, because they’ve coded around 800 books into the game that you can suggest based on what customers say they’re looking for. Be warned: if you binge it like I did, you might be surprised to find that, unlike Stardew Valley, this game has an ending. When you unlock the final goal (no spoilers), the credits roll. But that just means I’m going to go back and play it again... and again... and again. This is definitely going on my list of comfort replays, along with Wytchwood, Cozy Grove, and Spiritfarer.
As you lovely people know, I have been super busy for a few months. As a result, I’ve REALLY gotten out of the habit of cooking for myself. I typically love cooking, but it’s the kind of activity I need to prepare for: I need the ingredients, a clean surface for food prep, and all the pots and pans on hand. I’m trying to slowly reintroduce the idea that I can make my own food, but given my high maintenance cooking needs (lol) it’s hard! So here is a very simple DIY meal that involves very little actual cooking: spaghetti and IKEA plant balls. All in all, this is a big comfort dinner that emulates a home-cooked meal but takes very little actual effort. Plus it’s an excuse to go to IKEA!
I’m currently reading Jeffrey Sweet’s Something Wonderful Right Away and I am having the time of my life!!! If you’re a comedy nerd and interested in theater history, I think it’s well worth a read. If you need a more general rec, please allow me to encourage you to revisit a favorite book from childhood. I just reread Ella Enchanted after coming across it in a little free library and it was a sweet, nostalgic, cozy journey!
Folks, it’s that time again! Zoe’s hyper-fixation hour! Last week I saw Bram Stoker’s Dracula in theatres and my brain chemistry has changed forever. I didn’t think anything could top Nosferatu (2024) in my vampire books, but Bram Stoker’s Dracula has proved me wrong. This movie is HORNY, folks. And the practical effects are out of this world. Not to mention the Gary Oldman of it all. And yes, I realize this is not the “watching” segment, and I am supposed to be recommending something to listen to, so I will recommend the soundtrack to Bram Stokers Dracula by composer Wojciech Kilar. No, but seriously, the soundtrack is so incredible!! In particular, Mina and Dracula’s love theme is so stunning you can almost hear the words “I crossed oceans of time to find you” braided into the strings
Are you guys so sick of me making my rec space about ER?? I know I am!! Since we last spoke, I finished season 8 and sobbed so hard at two specific episodes (Orion in the Sky and On the Beach, iykyk) that I woke up the next morning with a puffy face and an emotional hangover, so do I recommend this??? Maybe not!!! Genuinely if I had been capable of conscious thought when those particular episodes aired on NBC in 2002 I would have ended up on national news. So instead of getting too emotionally invested in a show that first aired thirty years ago, I am going to recommend you watch a charming rom-com called Rye Lane, starring David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah, about two Black British twenty-somethings who meet after both experiencing breakups and end up spending a lovely day together. I saw this when it first came out, but I recently saw The Long Walk (I would also recommend this, but oy, you know) and remembered that David Jonsson is maybe one of our most talented actors working right now, and also he’s gorgeous, so I rewatched with my partner. Very good and will not make you cry, that’s a promise!!!!
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