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https://blackgirlnerds.com/martha-blanding-from-dishwasher-to-disney-legend/
At this year’s D23, BGN had the opportunity to interview recently announced Disney Legend Martha Blanding as she promoted her new book Groundbreaking Magic. Ms. Blanding started as a young woman from South Central LA (Watts and Compton) who took a chance, defied the odds, and became the first-ever Black American to achieve a 50-year career with the Walt Disney Company.
Martha Blanding was the first full-time Black tour guide, the first Black woman in management, the first Black buyer in merchandise, the first Black female to retire from Disneyland after 50 years, and the first Black Disney Parks employee to become a Disney Legend. She was also one of the founders of PULSE (People United to Lead, Serve, & Excel), the diversity group for Black cast members and allies.
Her journey from an entry-level position to a VIP Tour Guide at Disneyland is chronicled in her new book and highlights the importance of determination and cultural representation. In this interview with BGN, Ms. Blanding’s resilience, dedication, and determination shine through as she acknowledges the challenges faced by people of color within the company and the significance of having role models and mentors, particularly in the face of adversity.
Black Girl Nerds: What did you want to be as a kid?
A school teacher. I ended up at Disney because I was going to Cal State Fullerton, and I’m a twin. Both of us were in college at the same time. So, you can imagine how expensive it is to have one child in college, and my parents had two. Plus, I had two other brothers. So, I wanted to help my parents with my tuition, and I needed a job. I heard about getting a job at Disneyland.
So I went and applied for a job. I was initially hired as a dish-up at the Plaza. I never made it there because I was talking to someone after my interview, and someone else came over and asked me if I wanted to be a tour guide. I looked at him and said, okay, whatever, I don’t know what that is. But I knew I didn’t want to work in the kitchen because my mother and grandmother were caterers, so I knew all about the food world. So I said okay. They set up interviews with the managers and everything. I went and interviewed and got the job.
A kind of “started from the bottom, now we’re here” moment — the first Black VIP tour guide, the first Black female leader at Disneyland Resort. Not an easy feat, I imagine, given the time you started and just how big Disneyland grew during that time. But someone had to be first, right? What guided you and kept pushing you forward to climb higher, keep going, and be the best of the best? What kept you going?
Me. My mother. My Aunt Ella. My Aunt Elise. They were amazing women in my life. I felt that if I could be just half of what they were, I’d be alright. And I just love helping people. I love creating magic for the cast and our guests. I just had this determination to do more, do better, continue to do more, and be a good example for my own culture and others. I just couldn’t stop.
You’re a Disney legend. Congratulations.
[Tears up.]
Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you emotional!
That’s alright. I’m kind of a crybaby.
You’re in a class with Angela Bassett. Harrison Ford. What has this experience been like for you? When you found out, what were you thinking?
I saw the lineup, and the only two Black people in there were the beautiful, amazing Angela Bassett, who I am a fan of. When they made the announcement, it was like Angela Bassett, Martha Blanding, and I’m like, holy shit. She’s gorgeous, okay! Then there’s me. Then Harrison Ford, I’m a fan of his also. I’m an Indiana Jones girl. It’s just amazing. I am speechless, and I’m never speechless. I always have something to say. I am trying to accept it and own it. I’ll own it, but I’ll have it by tomorrow.
After 50 years of Disney, is there anything that surprised you the most about the evolution of the company, how it’s grown over the years, and where it’s going for the future?
When we went through the COVID situation, a lot of us were laid off for a short period of time. Internally, we had some conversations with some of our executives. The first one that we had, Bob Iger spoke, and the words that he said that needed to be said, he had the guts to say them. That really struck me. But, you know what? We may not be exactly where we need to be as far as having enough Black executives or any other people of color executives, but we’re on our way.
It’s so much better than what it was when I first started working at Disneyland. Can they do better? Yes. Will they do better? Yes. Are they? Yes. And they work very hard to support Black Lives Matter, but they also support Hispanics, Asians, Black women, white women, everybody. They do a good job of support. That was such a big thing for us, and they lived up to my expectations.
The post Martha Blanding: From Dishwasher to Disney Legend appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
At this year’s D23, BGN had the opportunity to interview recently announced Disney Legend Martha Blanding as she promoted her new book Groundbreaking Magic. Ms. Blanding started as a young woman from South Central LA (Watts and Compton) who took a chance, defied the odds, and became the first-ever Black American to achieve a 50-year career with the Walt Disney Company.
Martha Blanding was the first full-time Black tour guide, the first Black woman in management, the first Black buyer in merchandise, the first Black female to retire from Disneyland after 50 years, and the first Black Disney Parks employee to become a Disney Legend. She was also one of the founders of PULSE (People United to Lead, Serve, & Excel), the diversity group for Black cast members and allies.
Her journey from an entry-level position to a VIP Tour Guide at Disneyland is chronicled in her new book and highlights the importance of determination and cultural representation. In this interview with BGN, Ms. Blanding’s resilience, dedication, and determination shine through as she acknowledges the challenges faced by people of color within the company and the significance of having role models and mentors, particularly in the face of adversity.
Black Girl Nerds: What did you want to be as a kid?
A school teacher. I ended up at Disney because I was going to Cal State Fullerton, and I’m a twin. Both of us were in college at the same time. So, you can imagine how expensive it is to have one child in college, and my parents had two. Plus, I had two other brothers. So, I wanted to help my parents with my tuition, and I needed a job. I heard about getting a job at Disneyland.
So I went and applied for a job. I was initially hired as a dish-up at the Plaza. I never made it there because I was talking to someone after my interview, and someone else came over and asked me if I wanted to be a tour guide. I looked at him and said, okay, whatever, I don’t know what that is. But I knew I didn’t want to work in the kitchen because my mother and grandmother were caterers, so I knew all about the food world. So I said okay. They set up interviews with the managers and everything. I went and interviewed and got the job.
A kind of “started from the bottom, now we’re here” moment — the first Black VIP tour guide, the first Black female leader at Disneyland Resort. Not an easy feat, I imagine, given the time you started and just how big Disneyland grew during that time. But someone had to be first, right? What guided you and kept pushing you forward to climb higher, keep going, and be the best of the best? What kept you going?
Me. My mother. My Aunt Ella. My Aunt Elise. They were amazing women in my life. I felt that if I could be just half of what they were, I’d be alright. And I just love helping people. I love creating magic for the cast and our guests. I just had this determination to do more, do better, continue to do more, and be a good example for my own culture and others. I just couldn’t stop.
You’re a Disney legend. Congratulations.
[Tears up.]Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you emotional!
That’s alright. I’m kind of a crybaby.
You’re in a class with Angela Bassett. Harrison Ford. What has this experience been like for you? When you found out, what were you thinking?
I saw the lineup, and the only two Black people in there were the beautiful, amazing Angela Bassett, who I am a fan of. When they made the announcement, it was like Angela Bassett, Martha Blanding, and I’m like, holy shit. She’s gorgeous, okay! Then there’s me. Then Harrison Ford, I’m a fan of his also. I’m an Indiana Jones girl. It’s just amazing. I am speechless, and I’m never speechless. I always have something to say. I am trying to accept it and own it. I’ll own it, but I’ll have it by tomorrow.
After 50 years of Disney, is there anything that surprised you the most about the evolution of the company, how it’s grown over the years, and where it’s going for the future?
When we went through the COVID situation, a lot of us were laid off for a short period of time. Internally, we had some conversations with some of our executives. The first one that we had, Bob Iger spoke, and the words that he said that needed to be said, he had the guts to say them. That really struck me. But, you know what? We may not be exactly where we need to be as far as having enough Black executives or any other people of color executives, but we’re on our way.
It’s so much better than what it was when I first started working at Disneyland. Can they do better? Yes. Will they do better? Yes. Are they? Yes. And they work very hard to support Black Lives Matter, but they also support Hispanics, Asians, Black women, white women, everybody. They do a good job of support. That was such a big thing for us, and they lived up to my expectations.
The post Martha Blanding: From Dishwasher to Disney Legend appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
By It’s a vicious cycle: You find a series you love, only to be left waiting a year for the next season to come out. How are you supposed to remember a show that happened last year when you can’t even remember what you had for breakfast? Try one of these limited series instead.
10. Station Eleven
Station Eleven does the end of the world story different. It’s not about people racing to find a cure for an undead plague or fight off roving bands of marauders. It’s about a group of people attempting to survive in a post-apocalyptic world … by doing theatre. Switching between pre and post disaster times, Station Eleven is a tender and introspective tale about humanity’s bare essentials: our relationships and our need for artistic expression. But don’t worry, this series still has plenty of end of the world thrills too. The survivors run into a guy who thinks he’s the literal messiah, and is ushering people into his cult at gunpoint. Some people have no taste.
The post The 10 best limited series on Max, ranked appeared first on The Mary Sue.
Alien: Romulus from director Fede Álvarez functions as a sequel to Ridley Scott’s original Alien from 1979, while also referencing his more recent prequel films, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Álvarez combined elements of both of those films for a wild third act that has everyone talking, because it’s pure nightmare fuel. Here, we’ll break down the ties to the other films in the franchise, and what the future might hold for further Alien installments. Especially after that wild ending left audiences gagged.
How Alien: Romulus Ties into Alien and Prometheus
When Alien: Romulus begins, we see a space probe has discovered the remains of the Nostromo, the mining vessel destroyed at the end of the original Alien. This is some 17 years after the events of that film. As you might recall, before fleeing in her escape pod, Ripley blasted the Xenomorph out of the airlock. As a “perfect organism,” it survived in space with no nutrients by going into a cocoon mode. That same Xenomorph was discovered near the remains of the Nostromo. It is brought back to a space station named the Renaissance, in orbit of the ringed planet Jackson’s Star. This takes us to the year 2142, twenty years after the events of Alien.
The Weyland-Yutani Company Is Once Again the True Villain
The Weyland-Yutani scientists working there try to experiment on the Xenomorph. But of course, it breaks free, killing the crew and creating new baby Xenomorphs, and releasing a metric ton of facehuggers. When labor worker Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her friends from Jackson’s Star, including her synthetic “brother” Andy (David Jonsson) pilot the mining ship Corbelan to the station in hopes of finding cryo pods to escape to a more hospitable world than their own, they find no one alive on the station. All that’s left is a half-functioning synthetic scientist named Rook, the same model as the android Ash from the Nostromo (played by Ian Holm). He explains to Rain and the others what happened on the station.
The scientists in the Romulus lab aboard the station performed experiments on the captured Xenomorph, discovering a new form of the black goo from Prometheus. In fact, the scientists give that tar-like substance the name “the Prometheus strain.” With this strain, the Weyland-Yutani scientists believed they could reverse engineer it to create a cure for all human illnesses and build “a perfect human lifeform” of their own which they could then exploit on dangerous and inhospitable mining worlds as a labor force. The scientists in the lab synthesized this strain, but all hell broke loose before any samples could leave the station.
The Birth of a Human/Engineer/Xenomorph Hybrid Being
One of Rain’s friends from the Corbelan, Kay (Isabela Merced), was already pregnant when she escaped to the station. As the Xenomorphs pick off the Corbelan crew one by one, one of them captures Kay. Eventually, Rain and Andy find Kay in a cocoon, free her, and take her with them as they try to escape the station. Kay survives her injuries, but she chooses to inject the experimental sample into herself to increase her odds of survival. To paraphrase Aliens, this was a very bad call on her part.
Kay then suddenly gives birth to an egg. It hatches into a rapidly growing human-Xenomorph creature. The terrifying being looks part Xenomorph and also very similar to the Engineers from Prometheus. It kills its mother and nearly kills Andy, damaging him significantly. Rain ejects the cargo pod and the creature onto the asteroid rings of Jackson’s Star, and gets back control of the ship, and manages to escape with the damaged Andy. They go into cryo sleep, hoping to land on a more hospitable world than the hell they left behind. Even if it takes years to get there.
What Happens After Alien: Romulus?
Will someone find the remains of the creature in the rings of Jackson’s Star? And will the Company try again to replicate it? And what happens to Rain and Andy now? Just like Ripley (and Jones the cat) in Alien, they might float in cryo for years or decades. The universe they wake up in might be very different. Fede Álvarez clearly embraces the entire canon of the Alien franchise here. So whatever comes next likely continues building on what’s come before. For all we know, she arrives on Earth in the year 2381 or after, and encounters Ellen Ripley. We’re not saying that’s what will happen, but “going to sleep and waking up in a messed up world” is part of this franchise’s DNA. Anything can happen now.
The post The Wild Ending of ALIEN: ROMULUS, and What It Means for the Future of the Franchise appeared first on Nerdist.