Patreon Newsletter #48: October 2023! (Patreon)

From Adal:

Hey Future Lizards!

Fall has fell but it’s still 85 degrees each day so what’s the fucking point. My flannels are weeping in the closet.

Jemma and I had a wonderful trip to London to see the final 10 performances of The Burnt City. At the finale they teased a possible continuation and my hope is that Punchdrunk will finally bring their magic to L.A. as they’ve been circling the city for years. We also took in another night of Operation Mincemeat (we launch into the songs every 20 minutes or so at home, it’s going to be a real problem) and were also able to snag tickets to a mind-blowing production of Next to Normal - which is one of Jemma’s favorite musicals.

The weirdest thing we got up to was going to the Crystal Maze live experience. I guess Crystal Maze was like the UK version of Double Dare or something? A 90’s game show (hosted by Rocky Horror creator/Riff Raff actor Richard O’Brien?!) where a team of strangers make their way through 14 rooms - with each room holding a challenge for one member; either physical, mental, skill or mystery. Jemma and I ‘won’ 6 of the challenges and the rest of our team proceeded to fail the rest. The penultimate room was all riddles and I’ve never in my fucking life felt so powerful. I rattled off the answers so fast that the host/guide for our team thanked me for being a return customer - assuming I had played the room before. It felt a bit less powerful to admit I host a riddle podcast. My team certainly allowed their awe in my performance to fade after that.

A trip to Canterbury was also in order as I haven’t returned in 20 years since spending a semester there playing basketball for Canterbury Christ Church College (since upgraded to University status). It’s still a gorgeous town and honestly Thomas Beckett is so lucky to have been martyred there. MUST BE NICE!

Coming up I’m heading to Italy (just missing Arnie!), Croatia and Montenegro on a trip with Jemma’s family to celebrate her step-dad’s retirement. My goal is to eat a pasta noodle so quickly that it slaps me on the forehead and we all laugh while Jemma just shakes her head in disbelief and quietly stops loving me. I try to keep my goals simple and attainable.

October is my favorite month and I’m absolutely pumped to watch some scary movies and run through some local haunted houses. Please let me know if you have suggestions in either category! If you haven’t seen it yet, I practically demand you watch Over The Garden Wall. In addition please watch this to fully set the tone for your October: Silly Symphonies - The Skeleton Dance

Here’s what I consumed in September:

TV:

• Welcome to Wrexham season 2
• Gen V
• Survivor season 45
• Jeopardy
• The Continental
• Wheel of Time season 2

Music:

• Mitski - The Land Is Inhospitable and So are We
• Operation Mincemeat cast recording
• Young Mountain - This Will Destroy You
• Andrew Bird - Outside Problems
• Fiona Apple - Tidal
• Explosions In The Sky - End
• Animal Collective - Isn’t It Now?
• Baroness - Stone
• Chromeo - Quarantine Casanova
• The Mountain Goats - Murder at the 18th St. Garage/Fresh Tattoo/Clean Slate (3 songs were released on Spotify in anticipation of the upcoming album)

Other Stuffs:

• Matt Young was kind enough to guest on a recent episode of The Word Association! Please check it out if you’re so inclined: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2fWQmGMzGz3u8yrsEvtsRW?si=l5xERma6RDCjMJhZbRD18A&nd=1
• Scott Hasn’t Seen Pod - I got CBB World just to hear Erin’s episode of this! She was wonderful
• U Springin’ Springsteen On My Bean podcast - I haven’t listened to any of the other series but this title was too funny to not check out
• College Town Podcast - co-hosted by recent HRR guest Seth Morris

Please let me know what you’ve been enjoying!

Adal

7:17pm

From JPC:

Hey Riddiots -

September is in the history books. We are now entering into my favorite season, Weezetoberfest. This is the month where Billbuds exclusively covers Weezer albums. This year it's Everything Will Be Alright in the End to Black. If that doesn't make sense to you, that's probably a good thing. Even though the weather hasn't been "fall" yet, I have already done a few fall activities. Highlight was going apple picking and getting to shoot the apple cannon. It's exactly what it sounds like and it was, quite literally, a blast.

Okay, what can I recommend? Well, I just finished rewatching the first 6 seasons of Justified. I have been at this ever since I heard that they were doing a reboot show. But here's the problem, I'm all Justified out now. I'll watch the new one eventually, but I don't know when. I also don't necessarily know that I'd recommend ALL six seasons, but season 2 is definitely good. And I have to say my favorite character is Wynn Duffy played by Jere Burns. My favorite part is that he was supposed to be a one-episode character and they basically had to rewrite his character and tone down the insanity to keep him in the show. I don't know much about the industry, but I think the coolest thing you can do as an actor is turn a small part into a recurring part based on your performance. That's gotta feel great. I'll also recommend season 5 of What We Do In The Shadows. I think I've recommended every season, but that show is just so damn funny.

Oh, and speaking of TV, at the time of this writing actors are still on strike but the writers have a tentative contract. If you haven't been following the strike, they made it like 150 days before the bosses kinda caved. I read through the WGA release and it seems like a pretty good deal. Always awesome to see workers (in any industry) exercising their power. And I have high hopes for the UAW strike too.

And finally, on advice of council (Casey Toney) I got a Steam Deck. So far, I've only played MTG Arena on it and only while I'm on my exercise bike, but I'm sure there are other applications for it. Does anyone else have one? Favorite games to play on it?

Cheers,

John Patrick "JPC" Coan

HRR Updates/News

• Our October Review Crew (reviewing US ATTENDING A FANS WEDDING!) will come out on Monday October 16th.
• The October Review Crew Livestream will be on Monday October 9th from 8pm to 9pm U.S. Central Time.
• A special Columbo-nus episode, DM’d by the tastiest of DM’s - Anthony Burch, will be released when we hit 7200 Patreon subscribers!

Love you all!

Adal, Erin & JPC