Wonderful! - Wonderful! 130: Jawbreaker Julie

Episode Date: April 22, 2020

Rachel's favorite rhythmic poet! Griffin's favorite animal sighting! Rachel's favorite traffic invention! Griffin's favorite emotional musical!Music: "Money Won't Pay" by bo en and Augustus - https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Yeah, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. Yeah, it sure is, babe. Cool, cool, cool. Yeah, man. I'm just going to, cool, cool. Yeah, man. I'm just going to keep it pretty cool and casual this time. Hmm?

What do you think? You like this energy? No, not at all. It's whatever, you know? It's like, are we making a podcast or are we not making a podcast? It's whatever, dude. Okay. This is how I'm sort of getting through it now.

Also, to step outside the bit. It's just be like, okay, whatever, man. It's cool. All right. Does this character have gum, okay, whatever, man. It's cool. All right. Does this character have gum in his mouth? Kind of. Maybe. Maybe this character chews gum.

That's fun, babe. See, we're building the bit together. We're working in the space together. This is gum chewing Dan, and he doesn't have a care in the world, does he? Because he's kind of above it all. Do you want to be one? Do you want to be a gum chewing Dan? No, but can I be somebody else?

Sure, yeah. I am Jawbreaker Julie. all do you want to be one do you want to be a gun chewing dan no but can i be somebody else sure yeah um i am jawbreaker julie oh hit me with what that sounds like uh so heart her thing um oh she's great i set my alarm but then i didn't wake up so I'm late. Whatever. That's really good, babe. Thank you. This is so powerful. Yeah. And this is what's gonna get us through this thing

together as a community. This escapes into fantasy world. This escapes into fantasy a little light role play which you know I've been trying to get into for a long time. I think this is indicative of uh my small wonder this week which is the schwartz and middleditch special that we watched last night

on netflix with uh ben schwartz and thomas middleditch uh holy shit it is the hardest i have laughed at anything and for for certain since all this uh started but also maybe in the last like year or two it uh absolutely busted me up had me in stitches that special so so so good long form improv which i think at first made griffin a little nervous but uh delightful no i see i adore it when i know i'm in i'm in the trusted capable hands of people who are really really good at i can't remember uh the guys that you made that you introduced me to tj and dave tj and dave from this i think from the sonic or one of them's in the sonic commercials yeah there's chicago icons that at least for a while did a weekly show uh where they would just start out with the with a prompt or a suggestion and they

would just go for like an hour and that is what uh middle ditch and schwartz is and holy christ no joke like i'm recommending it to everybody that i'm talking to now because it's like a little beautiful little levity balloon to enjoy do you have a small wonder i do this is not going to surprise anybody but uh fiona apple's new album fetch the bolt cutters uh downloaded it like actually bought it in the itunes uh first day it came out and i've been listening to it pretty frequently i would say i listened to that whole album maybe five or six times already wow it's phenomenal everything you're reading about it is true it is exceptionally good and and I would recommend it. I haven't dipped in yet. I've been listening to LMFAO's new album.

Oh, and what's that called? Fetch the Bolt Cutters, also. Oh. Yeah, it's a weird sort of coinkydink. But yeah, it's good. It's got a lot of emotional emotions in it, and it's sort of a turn for them, because it's just one vocalistist and it's a woman and she is singing she's singing a lot of sort of quiet non-party songs and now that i'm saying all this i think i may have actually

been listening to fiona apple but they mixed up the thumbnail on spotify oh yeah somebody should fix that someone should fix that i think immediately go first this week. What's your first thing? My first thing is a trip to the Poetry Corner. Oh, wow. Right away, huh? I'm going to start right there. I barely, let me put on my shoes. Gosh.

Poetry, poetry, radioactive poetry. I started singing the Spider-Manman melody and i don't regret it watch out oh here comes the poetry i like that all right and you know there's a lot of similarities between spider-man and poetry i think so too you know when you're swinging from building to building yeah like from stanza to stanza it's like there's a rhythm to it and you fight dr octopus like you do in poetry you hang upside down and you kiss kirsten kirsten oops i why can't i remember her name kirsten dunst kirsten dunst a lot of there's not that many Kirstens. The poet I am bringing this week is a Polish poet.

And her name is Wiesława Simborska. Oh, I know her. Oh, yeah? No. I always think it's going to happen. You thought it would happen with this one? Yeah. Oh, interesting. she's relatively well known

oh wow okay wow i guess there's something well known that i don't know wow i actually on my face i actually am relatively new to her work so i probably shouldn't but she won a nobel prize which makes her you know one of the more recognizable poets. Yes, for sure. Actually, she won it in 1996, and the Academy praised her poetry that, quote, had ironic precision that allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality. It's hard for me to follow what that meant,

but I bet it's good and cool and smart. She, as I mentioned, grew up in Poland, is well-known there, and got recognition once she won that Nobel Prize kind of globally. She didn't have a lot of collections of poetry. From what I can tell, there's about four that have been translated into English. Maybe she has more that have not been translated. Sure. She said in her Nobel speech that, quote, in the language of poetry, where every word is weighted, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it.

Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world. Do you think after she said that, she was like, and oh damn, hold up, I got to go write that down, because I think it was a poem? I can't just give those away for free. Yes, that was a poem and it was mine. Trademark, trademark. The other thing that she said in her Nobel Prize is she joked about lives of poets. She said great films can be made of lives of scientists and artists but not poets.

Quote, their work is hopelessly unphotogenic. Someone sits at a table or lies on a sofa while staring motionless at a wall or ceiling. Once in a while that person writes down seven lines only to cross out one of them 15 minutes later and then another hour passes during which nothing happens.

Even that. does she ever say stuff like i want to eat a ham sandwich for lunch today i mean that's what they're that's what they're talking about that um ironic precision right you know uh i i really liked her poetry because i found it um very playful you know, and very, the translations must be incredible because like the language in the translation is so rhythmic and perfect. And I just, I have to imagine that she's one of the few poets

that got that kind of treatment in translation because I love it. I've never thought about that before. Obviously like translation and localization is like, yeah, it's an important thing. But in terms of poetry, we're every... To get like the meter right and if there's rhyme. So I wanted to read a poem from View with a Grain of Sand. The poem is called The Acrobat.

And I enjoy it particularly for kind of the rhythm and the language because it very much mirrors, you know, an acrobat. Right. From trapeze to trapeze in the hush that follows the drumroll's sudden pause. Through, through the startled air more swiftly than then his body's weight which once once again, again, is late for its own fall. So low, or even less than so low, less, because he's crippled, missing, missing wings, missing them so much that he can't miss the chance to soar on shamefully unfeathered, naked vigilance alone. Arduous E is watchful agility and calculated inspiration. Arduous E is watchful agility and calculated inspiration.

Do you see how he waits to pounce in flight? Do you know how he plots from head to toe against his very being? Do you know, do you see how cunningly he weaves himself through his own former shape and works to seize this swaying world by stretching out the arms he has conceived? Beautiful beyond belief at this passing, at this very passing moment that he's just passed. That is a poem-ass poem right there. I love, like, you can just picture this, like, trapeze swinger swinging back and forth. Like, the way the lines are constructed and the rhythm of the poem. It's just, like, it's so visual and just how she how she chooses the language it's incredible yeah that's really cool i've never quite heard a poem like that i don't

think yeah it's um i mean it has to have been a little experimental in its time i don't know i just i find it really inspiring to see somebody who is not, I mean, is obviously concerned with transmitting an image and a meaning, but also trying to do this very clever, creative thing of making the language kind of communicate that message as well. Yeah, I like that. Hey, my first thing is seeing a deer. Seeing a deer. Ooh, I like that. Maybe this is selfish in a deer. Seeing a deer. Ooh, I like that. Maybe this is selfish in a way. Maybe this is too sort of like human focused

because I'm not talking about deer themselves. I'm talking about how cool it is when I, Griffin McElroy, a human being, see a deer. Yeah. But every time I see a deer, it's like I'm not a superstitious person or anything like that. But whenever I see a deer,

my mind goes to like, what does this mean? this mean this means i took a picture not long ago uh put it up on the instagram i was going on a walk in our neighborhood and there were just a few deer and you could tell like they had just kind of taken over like there's been less traffic in our area and thus more deer appearance yes i read something about and this is maybe a dark way to start out this subject but just that the uh behaviors of of deer and really most sort of like uh urban wildlife is is like they are changing because of the way that we are now living our lives sort of in uh seclusion and that you know it's kind of a neat transition now because they, you see deer fucking everywhere.

But once things get back to normal for a while, it is not going to be a neat transition. Oh yeah, that's going to be tricky, huh? Going to be quite tricky and bad. I would love to not focus on that though during this segment. There are estimated to be 30 million deer in the US and that's quite a bit. And under quote optimal conditions that number can double every two years um so that's i mean it's not optimal right now obviously due to uh various different uh like habitat loss factors um but regardless like we see deer all the time uh we moved into uh this house in 20 what 2018 and uh it's just it's deer

city up here baby but even though i see them all the time it's still so special uh outside of my office window they will like come in our front yard and eat the jasmine and even though they're eating our plants i'm still it's reframed how i think about plants in our yard where it's just like well that's deer fuel they need that it's reframed how I think about plants in our yard where it's just like, well, that's deer fuel. They need that. It's serving its ultimate purpose, which is filling up these beautiful, beautiful deer. I just, I really, I really like it. I think I like looking out my office window at animals regardless.

I have a branch of a tree that extends just out past the, it's actually a glass door. So it's quite a large little portal to the outside world. And I'll see squirrels just like chilling out there. And I've taken it just kind of looking out the door at those squirrels and just kind of watching them for a while. Which is, squirrels are cute as hell, man. Like, I don't know why everybody's not talking

about these things all the time. They're really cute. Those tails, fucking forget about it. They are good. They're really good. They can, fucking forget about it. They are good. They're really good. They can be quite destructive, I will say. Well, not personally. I don't feel the effects of that very much.

So for me, they're still good in my book. Deer are way bigger than squirrels. True. They command your attention. I think seeing an animal where you didn't expect one kind of catches the eye, especially when they are as big as a deer. Can you think of another animal that you see frequently in the wild this is big as a deer no a deer's just

like hey what's up and your eyes like whoa wait what's that doing there i mean man wow babe that's that's i feel like i'm back in the poetry corner they're just so quiet and majestic too like they hold themselves so regally and there's something about those eyes right the stillness you know what do they know that i don't know some of them also have big antlers which is just like that's like some like fairy time magic true bullshit that's like you've wandered in from the fey wilds and you have these antlers and it's like you're you're on some princess mononoke shit over there uh-huh and that's incredible for a long time we had a what i assume was a mother deer and her two children

that just kind of hung out in our area we We'd see them all the time, watch those kids grow up. It was nice. It was really nice. They ate a whole lot of our plants. True. Like a lot of our plants. To this day, our plants are still reeling from the deforestation that these deer visited upon it.

But they're so beautiful and they represent this crossroads between man and nature that just delights me to no end um although when i do see them when i'm driving on our street obviously it's a residential street i'm not driving very very fast so i will see them typically on the side of the road thinking like are we cool deer because you could just just jut out right into the middle of the road with no warning right now like i always inch past them like are we good are we good okay we're good uh deer have had like a sort of special significance or spiritual significance to like all kinds of different civilizations throughout human history but almost always they represent a sort of quietude and also intuition which i really like because i i just

there i just it's like they're living in another world than i am i sound like an like an elementary school art teacher right but i just like them i want to know their secrets tell me your secrets dear yeah i always i always kind of interpret that stillness as a like we cool we cool right now we cool they're feeling us out. I liked the mom deer and kid deer. I liked eventually it hit the point where like we would like walk down our steps after coming back from doing something. They would be eating shit in our front yard and they would like just watch us as we walked into the house instead of running away because they knew.

Yeah, we cool. We're not packing. We're cool. We like that they're here. Yeah, no, you feel like a certain amount of pride when a deer is like, oh no, she's okay. Deer like, if we weren't together and I had to put together a Tinder profile, I would put in deer like me.

Deer trust me. And that would attract, I think, a certain type of person. Yeah, I mean that elementary school art teacher. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hey, can I steal you a word? I don't like thinking about not being with you, even in like a fun role play experience.

Can I steal you away? Yes. Hey, can I read a Jumbotron for you? Please. This one is for Grammary, and it is from Sorin, who says, Dear Grammary, thank you for being my best friend, my DM, and my kissin' buddy. You've supported me through my transition so far, and I can't wait to grow with you and become your full-fledged boyfriend. I can't wait to travel with you and explore the world and figure out who we are

love your small small boyfriend soren small i love kissing buddy kissing buddy is a good job that i think you should be able to put on linkedin yeah and then people could endorse you and people could endorse you and that would be actually extremely weird and a breach of trust and privacy. Do you want to read this next one? Yes. This is for Jenny. It is from Olin. Jenny, thank you for being such a great partner while I've been in grad school. Coming home to you made the stressful days so much better. I'm grateful for you and I can't wait to keep building our life together. You're my good, good computer lady, and I'm your librarian ghoul. I love you.

I knew it. I knew every library has a ghost or ghoul or mummy or skeleton or Dracula in it. No. I've been saying that. How long have I been saying that, babe? How long have I been saying that? Oh, gosh. What?

Six, seven years? If not longer because i had one experience in a library that i'm like really sure was are you thinking of ghostbusters yeah i was in the library and this big nasty monster started to knock books all over the place and i was like i'm just trying to find the latest dan brown novel uh-huh and now i have to be spooked by a specter slimed and spooked slimed and spooked no thanks this is why i don't go to libraries anymore hi everybody my name is justin mcelroy i'm sydney mcelroy we're both doctors and nope just me okay well sydney's a doctor and i'm a medical enthusiast. And we create Sawbones, a marital tour of misguided medicine.

Every week I dig through the annals of medical history to bring you the wildest, grossest, sometimes dumbest tales of ways we've tried to treat people throughout history. And lately we do a lot of modern fake medicine because everything's a disaster. But it's slightly less of a disaster every Friday right here on MaximumFun.org as we bring you sawbones a marital tour of misguided medicine and remember don't drill a hole in your head hey what is your second thing my second thing is traffic lights oh just kind of came to me just like in a burst of clarity can Can I admit something to you? Yes. The other day we were playing with Henry and I had like a red ball, a yellow ball and a green ball. And I was going to be like, this is a traffic light. But it has been so long since I've driven in a car that I couldn't remember the order.

Like I couldn't remember if red is on top or if red is on the bottom. And this red is on the top top yeah wow red is on top obviously i'm a little freaked out i'm a little freaked out too man uh i mean obviously red light green light great great game we play it with henry all the time love that um but also just kind of the thought the innovation that went into this because what happened i was doing some research what happened cars came out yeah cars started going faster and faster there was nothing in place i mean there were like there were policemen who were like hey you stop and you go, but there was nothing ready for it. The world's first traffic light was manually operated and gas lit, and it came out in London in 1868.

But then less than a month after it was implemented, it exploded. Oh, that's not good. So whoops. month after it was implemented it exploded oh that's not good so whoops was it were the first traffic like did we crack the red yellow green sort of thing the yellow light seems like such a bold innovation at first it was just red and green okay it was just it was like oh whoops we need something in between there huh yeah because people are really stopping extremely quickly. So the first automated traffic control system was patented in 1910 and just included the word stop and proceed and neither was illuminated. What?

So it was just like, I'm guessing like an arm would go down that said stop. But at night, you're just not gonna. Yeah. God, what did they do at night you're just not gonna yeah um god what did they do at night did they hold the torch out in front of them as they drove what were they doing you know things took off pretty quickly if you think so in uh 1913 the model t started to roll off right um and you know they could go about 40 miles an hour uh and in that same year, almost 4,000 people, or actually more than 4,000, died in car crashes. And so there just wasn't, you know, policemen would stand in the center, but it just wasn't safe for them, and it wasn't particularly

effective for drivers. A Cleveland engineer named James Hodge borrowed the red and green signals being used on railroads already and then tapped into the electricity that ran through the trolley lines. Oh, interesting. And created the first municipal traffic control system. Still didn't have that yellow light in there, though. Nope. Dang. Dang. The light made its debut in Cleveland in 1914.

And then a police sitting in a booth on the sidewalk controlled the signals with a flip of a switch. Interesting. Yeah. I guess we didn't have computer. Still figuring out. Right. By 1930, all major American cities and major small towns had at least one traffic light. American cities and major small towns had at least one traffic light.

And the vehicle fatality rates fell more than 50% between 1914 and 1930. Wow, that's amazing. Did we have seatbelts yet? Probably not. No, no. I mean, our parents didn't even really have seatbelts when they were kids. Jesus. That's a real new thing.

Jesus. The yellow light was 1920. A Detroit policeman invented the first four-way, three-colored traffic lights. Oh, huge. Massive. Massive. I always think of the Simpsons episode where I think, I think like Lisa is the mayor. There's something going on where they have control over the city.

And I remember this one gag about how she has completely eliminated traffic by getting rid of the green light. So people just see the yellow light and they're like, oh, I got to get through it. So everybody gets to the intersections like very hastily. Oh, that's good. That is good. Yeah. This is like one of those things that you kind of take for granted. But like if you think about the work that went into addressing kind of innovation that

was happening, like, you know, just like hurry up and catch up with this like incredible thing that's happening in the country and like, Oh, let's make everybody safer and let's do it in a way that's like very easy to, um,

uh, understand. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. um uh understand wow yeah yeah i imagine there had to be some level of like uh psa going out there like okay guys this is what we're doing now well that's what i read about was the whole game red light green light was like part of this whole instructional campaign wow the thing i read said that like a cleveland teacher created the game and i was and like gave the name of the teacher and i was like wow this is yeah how can this be confirmed um but yeah there was

all this just kind of instructional effort starting with kids like going all the way up like this is what a traffic light is but then when that yellow light joined the mix there must have been drivers who saw that yellow light pop up and just like swerved and careened into a building. Like, what does that one do? What does that mean? What is that one? Can I tell you about my second thing? Yes. My second thing is

what is probably my favorite Broadway musical, Into the Woods. Oh. God, I love Into the Woods. Me too. It packs probably the most sort of emotional weight for me, especially in that like Mondo heavy second act. But it is also just so good and so well written and so, so, so, so clever. I find it so, this is like so miraculous for me because Griffin is somebody that grew up with a lot of access to musicals.

I did not have a lot of familiarity with it. But one particular production that I loved have a lot of familiarity with it. But one, one particular production that I loved as a kid was Into the Woods. It was the Bernadette Peters, like, Joanna Gleason, Chip Zine, like, yes, that production we also had on VHS. I think it was two tapes, actually, one was act one, and one was act two. Oh, ours was like, literally taped off of PBS. was act one and one was act two oh ours was like literally taped off of pbs oh okay this was a vhs of david weiner's creation right uh it was it it is an amazing amazing show and i think the reason for that the the fact that it is also your touchstone for theater is like the first time you see it like it is so clever that it leaves like an indelible mark like and also like the fact that it relies on like so many

established fairy tales like it makes it very uh conducive to sharing with your kids yeah absolutely although uh this again the second act gets uh yeah pretty heavy yeah there are actually lots of stories uh of uh people like taking their kids to the original Broadway run and like pulling them out in the second act. Uh, when, you know, like Rapunzel fucking dies. Yeah. Yeah.

Or, uh, the, you know, Cinderella's Prince has, uh, an extramarital affair. Like there's a lot of,

uh, stuff in there that, that is sort of the magic trick that this show plays, uh, of act one is essentially a, um, like a matchup of all of these. It's like the Marvel cinematic universe of fairy tales, uh, of act one is essentially a, um, like a matchup of all of these. It's like the Marvel cinematic universe of fairy tales,

uh, that blends Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel and little red riding hood and Cinderella and, a bunch more. Uh, and they just sort of interweave their stories very, very cleverly. Um,

it was written by Sondheim who obviously is a absolute legend. Who's that? What did he do? Craig Sondheim. Uh, no, it's by Sondheim who obviously is a absolute legend who's that what did he do Craig Sondheim uh no it's Stephen Sondheim he did you know everything everything Sweeney Todd uh West Side Story I think he actually just did lyrics for West Side Story but um and it is it is such a wildly ambitious show not just in like it's uh storytelling or its scale like uh act act two the magic trick i was alluding to is that like everything goes to shit uh and it gets like very very heavy much much heavier it is like a completely different show uh tonally and narratively than the first act was uh and and like there's a literal giant fight scene at the end of the show, which

like productions have, I saw a community theater production that, uh, like first stage did back in Huntington. That was the theater troupe that I, uh, did shows with and like seeing how everybody handles the giant fight at the end, uh, is, is always like entertaining to see. But more than that, like what is so ambitious about the show is like all of the themes that it is tackling uh most of which are sort of centered around parents and like uh relationships with parents the loss of parents uh the forgiveness of of parents and parental like failings uh yeah and also kind of the the the private life the like personal ambition

of parents that goes like beyond their children and their family you know right as you watch characters in this show go from like wanting to be parents and then becoming parents or losing parents and then reflecting on uh you know the things that their parents taught them that's like a main theme of the show is careful the things you say, children will listen. Just saying that made me like, I clenched a little bit. It is an amazing, amazing show.

And the movie adaptation also isn't that bad. It's got what, Meryl Streep andna kendrick and james corden and a bunch of like really really great performers in it um but for me yes it it all goes back to that original broadway performance the cast of which is fantastic uh it blew my mind like i feel like i still remember seeing it for the first time and the moment where there's like interaction with the narrator you think is like for you as an audience member and then when suddenly they break the fourth wall yes and bring in the narrator uh that is just one of the interweavings that happens in this show the opening number of this

song all the music is incredible like it is uh syncopated in a way that is like so fascinating and it is built around like a a handful of motifs that they just ring every drop out of throughout the course of the show uh and also like some of the songs last forever the opening song in this show is called prologue into the woods and it introduces all the characters all the storylines that you're going to see throughout the course of the show it is 12 minutes long start to finish and that's fucking incredible to see throughout the course of the show. It is 12 minutes long, start to finish. And that's fucking incredible. And yes, the performances in the original Broadway cast is like amazing. Joanna Gleeson plays the baker's wife.

She was also on West Wing for a long time. She's fantastic. Chip Zien is the baker. And he has this like delicate voice that is like so incredible. But yes, the standout, the like star is Bernad incredible but yes the standout the like star uh is bernadette peters as the witch which is such a fucking cool part of the show because she's obviously like framed as the antagonist for the first half which is just sort of leaning on these fairy tales and then in the second half where again everything falls apart she becomes this almost like ambivalent third party who is there to just like render judgment and fucking

tear down every other like member of the cast and every other event that they have done such a like incredibly complex character for like somebody that starts as a witch you know like the musical really plays with like what is good and bad right uh yeah she has a line in uh this song where she like stands in judgment of every other character in the show called last midnight where she says uh you're so nice you're not good you're not bad you're just nice yeah i'm not good i'm not nice i'm just right yeah uh it's so like a powerful line for a for a midwestern child yes uh i want to play some of that song because it is Last Midnight because it comes close to the end of the show where she is just like just reading these fools. And it is happening at the sort of apocalyptic moment in the show. And it's I it's scared the shit out of me as a kid. Like, the idea of somebody singing at the edge of the end of the world,

like, really, really, like, stuck with me. And, of course, it's Bernadette Peters just kind of killing it. So here's a little bit of Last Midnight. I'm the hitch, I'm what no one believes I'm the witch You're all liars and thieves Like his father, like his son

We'll be to a wife, father You'll just do what you do For all liars and thieves like his father, like his son will be too. Oh, why, father? You'll just do what you do. It's the last midnight. So goodbye, all. Coming at you first, midnight. Soon you'll see the sky fall. I think that represents sort of the show and the sort of

like turning of the, the story from like, Oh, these guys are just all flawed and doing their best to like, actually they've been pretty bad up to this point. And maybe they deserve what's coming to them. And then the show has this one last number called no one is alone, where a lot of the members of the like surviving members of

the cast who have all lost something very very important to them throughout the show like experience this like powerful found family uh that is like so so incredible and this song just breaks my heart every time i hear it uh so of course i'm going to do that to our listeners now by playing a little bit of no one is alone someone is on your side our side someone else is not while we're seeing our side maybe we forgot No one is alone That's, I love this show so, so much. And I get it stuck in my head. Like I get weird, weird parts of it stuck in my head. Just like lines of different songs.

Yeah, you were whistling it yesterday. I heard you. I was, yes, because I decided I wanted to talk about it. Yeah. And yeah, since prepping for this, like all I've wanted to do is watch it again. we watch it again tonight yeah of course i would watch either one i really do think i think nailing a broadway musical movie adaptation is real tough and i think that they did uh a you know diligent work with that in the the i think 2014 adaptation i don't

remember exactly when the movie came out but if it's all you have access to it ain't bad it's pretty good but the the broadway performance just had you seen bernadette peters and anything before that uh the jerk and you saw the jerk before you saw into the woods i'm pretty sure really i mean our dad like didn't our parents didn't really restrict like different comedy movies to us uh at a very young i saw the jerk very very young because i i that was my first exposure to bernadette peters and i was like oh she's a really talented you know singer and and theater performer and then i was like oh she's in movies too yeah it like blew my mind god she's so good okay uh hey do you want to know what our friends at home

are talking about yes uh we got a cool email from shreya who uh uh together with her sister has put together a project called letters against isolation where they are organizing people to write letters to self-isolating elderly folks who are you know super super lonely right now uh shreya says letters against isolation has grown really fast right now we have over 300 volunteers writing to almost a thousand seniors across the country and the last week alone we sent 500 letters we need more volunteers to keep up uh and you can learn more about this project at letters against isolation.com i was looking at it today it's really really cool and such a like such an incredible idea yeah so i would encourage everybody to if you if you got some time you want to brighten somebody's day letters againstagainstisolation.com.

It sounds really, really cool. Elise, and also somebody else, wrote in about Pomplamoose this week. The YouTube music. Do you know about Pomplamoose? I mean, I just know that it's a French word. Oh, yes. They are a, well, they started out a very long time ago as a

two-person musical outfit that would do covers of songs on YouTube videos where you would like sort of watch sort of Wolfpack-y in a way. But they have gone on to like release a bunch of albums and do a whole bunch of stuff. Anyway, Elise said, what instantly puts me in a good mood is watching a Pomplamoose video. The duo works with super talented artists to pull off an incredible mix of mashups, originals, and collaborations that all slap. The musicians all smile at each other, and you can just tell that they love what's happening in that room, man.

It's that's a, that's a good, if you don't know about Pomplamoose, that's a good like drip feed of positivity. Uh, I, I, I adore those two.

They are, uh, they are fantastic. Um, yeah, that's, that's, that's enough good stuff.

I think for one week. Okay. Right. I think so. Let's save some for next week. Okay. I want to thank Bowen and Augustus for these for our theme song, Money Won't Pay. You can find a link to that in the episode description.

And I take it back. Here's more good stuff. Go to MaximumFun.org. Check out all the shows on there. Yes. There is so much content. There is just so much content. And it is nice to have my little feed update with my MaxFun shows because they're all just like, they're so charming.

MaxFun is just a network full of charming people. Yeah, I think so too. I think so too. And that's going to wrap it up. Positive send off for this week. Any advice? Watch a... Watch a... Hey! Anything? Watch a, watch a,

Hey, Hey, watch a, watch a cook something new this week. Experiment. There's that thing that you've won. Maybe not cook, make some,

you've wanted to make that thing for a bit. Yeah. A lot of people are using this time because the idea of writing can be kind of daunting for a lot of folks, but you get into that visual art, let's say. Visual art. Yeah, it doesn't have to be words. Do a little sketching. Do a sketch.

Twist some coat hangers together and make a mobile. Yeah. I love that. I do too. I'm going to go make a mobile right now. You're not. I am. It's going to have rocket ships on it. MaximumFun.org

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