Wonderful! - Wonderful! 271: The Historic Billabong Bill

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

Griffin's favorite color-deleting video technology! Rachel's favorite Auckland-based indie rockers!Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoyaTransgender Law Center: https://transgenderlawcenter.org/ MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hello, this is Griffin McElroy. This is wonderful. Welcome to Wonderful Show. We talk about things we like that's good that we're into. And no artifice on this one. It's going to be a straight over the plate. I feel like right after the Max Fund Drive, we bring it all.

We put it all out there on the court. And thank you, by the way. And thank you all. The wonderful listeners came out so hard this year. Yeah. And it was genuinely humbling it was yeah we really we really hustled this time because um you know the community as a whole and when i say community i mean the globe yeah uh not not so spendy uh given the time true true which is totally understandable

for sure and so we really we really got out there and we shook it. We shook the coconut tree. And our bodies. Oh, you're saying, oh, okay. See, this is interesting because my brain went to like we shook the. No, and that's very sweet. But yours was more like a sexual. Like she gets paid to dance.

Right, right, right, sure. I mean, that's cool. That's cool too. And that's what we did mean that's cool that's cool too and that's just interesting that our brains went i regret this path anyway well thank you all so much but i feel like after the maximum drive it's you should really just do uh show them what they paid for this yes now this is resetting the bar a little bit. Not bad, but just more sustainable. See, I thought that too. I was like, all right, back to business. But then I thought like, oh, we just have all these new people that just became members.

Oh, fuck. Do we need to like keep the bar high at least until they settle in and then rip the rug out? Then we start. Then we throw them like jujubes a, like, jujubes? Question mark? Jujubes question mark? Did you listen to the episode today? Yeah, Griffin talked about jujubes with a rising inflection for 15 minutes.

Which we're not even sure if he really likes them, because he kept using this tone the whole time. I mean, they're basically dots, yeah? No, they're more licorice-y than dots, even. I like dots. I used to like dots. I don't think my current teeth could handle my current model of teeth anyway this is a this is a show we talk about all that kind of stuff so i reserve the right to talk about dots do you have any small wonders yeah i'm gonna, and I'm not going to get specific just to give some privacy to our son, but his school has parties occasionally. Yes. To kind of celebrate the good actions of the class.

And so they had one of those today. And Henry was so jazzed because they get to wear a costume if they want and bring a stuffed animal or pajamas that's an interesting choice pajamas yeah uh and henry has had his outfit planned for i mean easily weeks yeah um and he was just so jazzed and it was the best that's the best any kind of special school day is good like anything that's just enough to kind of break up the the monotony a little bit yeah anything to hang your hat on i remember as a kid being like hell yeah yeah um i'm going to say uh i mentioned it on on besties but uh i've been playing like a lot more Minecraft with Henry. Yeah.

And the music in the like latest, all the Minecraft music is, I've always found to be exceptional, but the latest sort of batch of music is mostly composed by Lena Rain, who was the composer of a game called Celeste, which has one of my favorite game soundtracks. Anyway, I have been listening to that. Well, I've been writing a fucking lot over the last couple of months and so it's been really nice having good like

background sort of vibey work music and this is like and i want to specify that that is graphic novel and not like your memoirs i don't want people to get too excited that a new original yeah before talked about work from griffin mcelroy's company that's fair that's fair yeah no i mean although although no please god no i'm so tired y'all my memory sucks so bad a memoir for me would be david sedaris it would not be just like two page chapters of like I think I went to a birthday party at a McDonald's I mean I know I went to a couple of birthday I know I actually went to quite a few birthday parties at McDonald's and I can recall them all very clearly well so maybe your

memory isn't bad maybe you're just nobody wants to hear about that shit nobody wants to hear about the i don't know did anyone pee their pants you gotta buy the book to find out i go first this week great i'm going to talk about something that i sort of rekindled my love uh affair with over the max fun drive and that is the green screen or chroma key if you want to be technical. I would love to know more about this guy. I know. It struck me that this is a thing that I've had some passing familiarity and some experience with that I think everybody kind of knows the word but doesn't necessarily know what the technology is or sort of where it came from. Yeah. I mean, I knew about it, I think, first in weather, right? Sure.

Like a meteorologist stands in front of a map and things move on it. Yes. And then, of course, when it came to movies, it was like crazy technology. Sure. I mean, it's the basis of most sort of like CGI post-production stuff that happens. Like you watch the making of a like any marvel movie and you're gonna see a lot of people doing big jumps in blue wide open blue spaces uh with blue cubes everywhere but um yeah i so one of the most recent sort of additions to the studio

is a green screen that i got which i used during the MaxFunDrive a few times because it's nice to, like if you're playing a game or something, instead of having your whole ass rectangle of like your office in the background, just being able to kind of be a little bit more efficient with the real estate. And it's so easy to do this in your house now. It's kind of wild. it's kind of wild.

It's kind of wild. So growing up, obviously, I went to a lot of radio stations and TV news stations. And I remember being a kid and going to WOWKTV and going to their big green screen and walking in front of it and turning into a disembodied head and being like, that's fucking crazy. But now pretty much anyone can do that. A lot of times you don't even need the green screen because, you know, there's like wild AI technology that can determine what is background and what is person and sort of effectively do the same thing.

Anyway, I've gotten way, way ahead of myself. So if you don't have any experience with working with green screen, the basic concept is that you can layer two pieces of footage or two images by essentially creating a sort of background and foreground layer by basically erasing a certain range of color spectrum from what's in front so when someone stands in front of a green screen you delete all green and all of the green stuff goes away and then it's basically in you know a a completely transparent sort of um map uh i don't have any background in like post-production video stuff at all um but i it's it really is so easy to do it on most modern computers now. And that's why you see it used. I mean, I feel like pretty much every streamer at this point is like a major streamer is using green screen technology. But pretty much anyone can do it.

You could just buy a big bolt of any solid color fabric and kind of do the same thing with most webcams that are out now. and kind of do the same thing with most webcams that are out now. Filmmakers have been using this kind of like matte effect since the early 20th century. The Invisible Man was a very prominent sort of special effects case that used a lot of black sort of matte backgrounds to make their guy invisible, I guess. And then Walt Disney did a lot of white screen uh shooting with real actors for a lot of the early um live action animated like fusion stuff yeah like when gene kelly right dances with uh the mouse from tom and jerry which is named either tom or jerry yes exactly uh in the 1930s uh rko developed a a blue screen process that allowed for sort of more refined, more dynamic layering. In 1940, there was a movie called The Thief of Baghdad that kind of was the first major motion picture to use to really utilize this technology for its blue screen genie, which is apparently breathtaking.

It won an Oscar for visual effects. What's really interesting about Chroma Key is it is kind of the backbone of a lot of visual effects stuff that exists today as it's used. And it has, over the last 70 years, really just escalated and grown in step with like technological advancements when you think about like

100 years difference in visual effects from one sort of era of film to now it's fucking bonkers how much technology has changed and not just like one specific kind it's not like computers got better like optical printing technology advanced. And so people found clever ways to use that. And then, you know, all the way up to whatever AI track. I don't understand anything about this world. I just find it really interesting how these different disciplines of science kind of came together to just keep making this one process more and more and more and more impressive and

accessible um so green screen why you may wonder do do people call it that despite the fact that you can do it basically any color you'd be sitting in front of a purple screen and then i used to think it really like it had to be green uh no it can be it can be it can be any color and the the like process of removing one solid color range. You can do that with any color range. But there are several factors behind sort of why you mostly hear of green screen. For one thing, for most of the history of cameras for broadcast purposes have used RGB sensors, so red, green, blue. like broadcast purposes have used RGB sensors, so red, green, blue.

So it makes sense that like removing one of those channels is much easier and much clearer than like removing, you know, purple, which would land sort of somewhere in the middle of those. Blue and green were sort of the most popular of those two colors for most purposes, because for, you know, most of video history they were thought to be sort of uh furthest from most skin tones uh and of those two blue and green only one of them is a color that like meteorologists and tv presenters and people who use this kind of stuff regularly actually wear on their clothes and that's blue if you think of people just sort of your current garment selection or most people's green is a much less so it just kind of by process

of elimination became became green because it they didn't have to spend as much time you know policing what people wore on their sets because most of the time unless you're interviewing matthew lesko for the weather report, you're usually not going to have to worry too much about their green clothes disappearing. I thought that was really interesting. And I just think it's neat that anybody can do this. And sometimes celebrities put out videos

of them doing stuff in green screen and then people do funny stuff with it because it's easy to do that too. I like the democratization of special this became a real thing like when people started doing you know virtual meetings too during the pandemic oh for sure yeah i remember our friend bristol brought a green screen to one of our zoom hangouts that was very and it was like it was just the absolute best for us yeah i also like mine i forget the brand of, but it like has a accordion sort of fold.

So you just pull it up and you can just drop it back down. Yeah, it reminds me of like the little, like projectors, you know, in the classroom. At class photo day, that is what it was. Oh, I didn't even think of that. I was thinking more of like when you would pull up like an overhead projector

and it would shine onto the pull down. I love that. Screen in the classroom did you ever have any sort of green script we had it at our high school uh news program uh so we did a lot of really pretty stupid our high school didn't have a like a news program of any kind there was no video work at our school there was morning announcements and it was done over like an old-fashioned like pa system yeah there was no like news channel the fucking star wars kid thing of me that was something you put on the air at your school yeah that was for the

weekend like um there's a star wars movie coming out this weekend. So you said. So we did a skit. So you said. I don't think it was my idea. I don't think I wrote that particular skit or sketch. Because when I saw that video, I thought, oh, this must have been for some class and Griffin didn't realize this video was being taken. Oh, no. You said, okay, put it up.

I'm doing some good work out here. Yeah, you didn't like it. It sounds like you didn't really like it or think it was very uh i think it was very good no it was very good you were dedicated it was very good then why would i be concerned about whether or not people saw it or not honey if it was very good this is very good i don't want people to see it that doesn't sound right so what could the other thing mean you're just i think ultimately a braver person than me oh it's very um risky risky to take your interests that are maybe not universally popular and share them with a broad audience yeah no for sure like star wars is like underground shit, but you're right about that. Well, I'm gonna wrap it up here, I think.

Can I steal you away? Yes. A man goes to the doctor and says that he's depressed and that life seems cruel. The doctor says, ah, the treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him and you will surely feel better. The man bursts into tears and says, but doctor, I am Pagliacci. Ah, okay, says the doctor.

In which case, try listening to the Beef and Dairy Network podcast. The Beef and Dairy Network podcast is a multi-award winning comedy podcast and you can find it at MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. With Max Fundrive in the books, we'd like to welcome our new members and say thanks to everyone who's supported us over the years. Welcome. Thanks. And now, on to the sticker sale.

A lot of this year's drive gifts and live streams focused on food. We love how food can bring communities together, but not everyone has access to the food they need. So we'll split the proceeds from our sticker sale among five U.S. food banks in areas disproportionately affected by poverty. The sale ends Friday, April 14th. Members at the $10 monthly level and above can purchase any stickers they'd like. There's also a special MaxFun sticker featuring Nutsy the squirrel that all members can purchase. For more info, head to MaximumFun.org slash sticker sale. And thanks again for your support.

Can I tell you about my thing this week? I would love for you to do that. It has been, I don't know, I want to say over a year since I have brought a musical group. And so I got on the internet and I went to the Tiny Desk Concerts because that's kind of a good way for me to find out about like hip bands. For sure. And just last month, March 2023, a band called The Beths was on Tiny Desk Concert. You, the extent to which you are batting a thousand with bringing musical acts on this show that I'm immediately like, yeah, I'm going to listen to this forever. I'm going to listen to this band forever. It's wild, babe.

Can I say something controversial? Oh, yeah. I think I've got pretty good taste. I think you've got exceptional taste. I'm just going to say that. I think Tiny Desk Concert also has very good taste. But there's not a complete overlap. They are doing kind of the initial pass for me.

Sure. Which is helpful. And then you polish it up from there. Not everybody makes a cut. It's true. So the Beths have actually been a group since 2014. It is a New Zealand indie rock band. They all, well, all except for the drummer, met at the University of Auckland.

And their first album came out in 2018. So they've been around for a while. I think just the nature of them being a New Zealand band is why we were a little bit slower, maybe. Yeah, maybe. To hear about them. Also because I don't have literally any avenue for hearing about new music other than you on this show. That's the only other reason that I have for them. And video games.

And video games, yeah, sure. So their first album, Future Me Hates Me, came out in 2018, which is a great name for an album, by the way. And then 2020, Jump Rope Gazers came out. And then the newest album came out in 2022, and it is called Expert in a Dying Field. and it is called Expert in a Dying Field. And I wanted to actually play a little bit of the title track off of that album, Expert in a desolate pile. I haven't touched an image. And I can burn the evidence, but I can't bear the pain.

And I can't forget it. How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? And how do you know? It it's so it's so good you know it's giving me like courtney barnett is giving me always yeah uh it's it's so good yeah no i was getting you know it's interesting they toured for a long time uh with death cab for cutie okay uh and it does it has that kind of like old indie rock and when i say old i mean like you know early aughts yeah like 15 20 years ago um sound which uh the label car park records describe the best as cerebral indie rock meets power pop that's good yeah for sure yeah um they also uh compared the best to soccer mommy okay like okay maybe that's there's something about this that feels like of the time yeah you know and and i think that's that's what it is it's a weirdly

like like melodic is the word that i feel like I use to describe this particular sector of indie rock where it's got a catchy fucking riff that you can bop to. Yeah. So the song I've played, Expert in a Dying Field, it's interesting. field it's actually it's interesting it speaks to kind of the lyrical power of the group because they talk a little bit about the meaning of that like concept um and so the the lead singer elizabeth stokes uh said that uh it's a great name what a name i mean the group is called the beths It's a great name. What a name. I mean, the group is called The Beths.

Okay, sure, sure, sure, sure. She said in an interview, your entire life feels like you're learning how to live in the world and then the world changes. You've become an expert in something that no longer exists. It's hard to deal with that sometimes. And then she talked specifically about the pandemic and how that kind of became more relevant to more people. It says you have more time to think and to dwell on old memories and people that you aren't in touch with anymore. And everything feels like it's changed. It feels like we're really living in a different world. We've all had to grieve a little bit for something that doesn't exist anymore,

big things and small things. Yowza. I mean, yes, but Yowza. So there's that component. And then there's also in this article from the Australia, New Zealand, like Rolling Stone chapter. And that's called? No, the Rolling Stone specific to Australia and New Zealand. I don't know what to call that. It's just like a sect of Rolling Stone that exists purely for that region. Okay.

Talks about how it can be kind of like a post-breakup anthem of like you have all this useless information. Oh, yeah. About a former partner and it's now obsolete because you're not in that relationship anymore. I don't think I have that. We've been together for over 10 years now. Yeah. Like, as discussed earlier, my memory is not useful. Lots of Rachel data, but that's highly pertinent.

Those are useful. Very useful, I would say. I have a lot of STEM sort of education in Rachel. These skills are on the daily I'm using these things. So, yeah, so they're they're huge the best are huge in New Zealand um they won album of the year best group and best alternative artist at the New Zealand Aotearoa Music Awards sorry that's that's like a like a language that i don't speak um but um yeah just it like they became enormous and part of that was because in the 2020 2021 period new zealand had like a globally recognized response to covid oh sure and that like it did not become a serious

problem because of the precautions they took early on. Yeah. So they were able to do shows. Cool. Which was great for them and kind of helped them get to where they are now. So Expert in a Dying Field came out 2022. And it's an incredible album. I listen to every song off of it now.

And it's an incredible album. I listened to every song off of it now. Their music often has this kind of like somber quality, but they like intentionally on this album kind of stroked to do something that was like a little more fun and poppy. And I've really super enjoyed it. Can we play that other song that you sent me too? Yes.

So the other song, it's actually a really cool music video too. So the other song is called Knees Deep. And the video is them bungee jumping from the Auckland Harbour Bridge. And they were able to do videos like that because apparently in New Zealand, you can get little grants of $5,000 or $8,000

to make music videos. If they have like public funding available that you can get little grants of $5,000 or $8,000 to make music videos. They have public funding available that you can apply for. And you can use that funding to make music videos. So that's how they did that video. But I love that song. So yeah, we could play a the longest day And the sun, the wind, the earth Were wearing me away The shame, I wish that I was brave enough to dive in

But I never have been and never will be I'm coming in hot and freezing completely The shame, I wish that I could say what I've been thinking Good band. Yeah. Good band. Liked all their songs on Spotify. That's the only way I know to not lose the music, that I'm like, oh, this is good. Just liked all that songs on spot that's the only way i know to like not lose the music that i'm like oh this is good just like that all that shit on spotify looking forward to listening to

that for a long time yeah so they are about to go on a u.s tour actually for those of you that are excited about this band they start their u.s tour in bonnaroo in june oh fun and they are traveling the country into october um they're actually going to be in Baltimore in August. That's dope. But yeah, apparently they do a really great live show. Their new album has a big fish on it. And at their live shows for this album, they like bring out a big inflated fish and just have it on stage with them. I love that.

They're having fun. Yeah. Thank you to Bowen and Augustus for these for a theme song. Money won't pay. You can find a link to that in the episode description. Got a bunch of new merch over at McElroyMerch.com. Got to get that stink spray. I don't think I, so I personally am not going to get the stink spray.

I'm not a very sort of aromatic individual, but from what I understand, it's quite pleasant to the smell in moderation yeah based on the live show it sounds like the kind of spray that you should spray into a room and then leave that room for maybe 10-15 minutes and come back and then it's gonna be just right wow that's interesting yeah or do it outside on yourself and then come into the room but please be careful we also have a keep your grades up pin that i'm a huge fan oh good um yeah all that's at macroymerch.com uh we got some shows coming up very very soon actually next week we're going to be doing mabim bam in austin at the moon tower comedy festival uh we are going

to be in san jose and denver at the end of the month doing mabambam and Taz. And then we just announced like a bunch of shows from now until like summer ish. And you can find all of those over at the McElroy dot family or McElroy dot family. I'm guessing you're going to make some changes to your costume for this tour. Yeah, man, I'm going to,

I'm, I, I'm thinking about just sort of like taking up a residency at like like a billabong somewhere. Do they still have those? They do. They have one special one and it's here in D.C. And you can go there and train and study. Joe Biden put together legislation to protect that billabong. It's a historic billabong. The billabong. It's a historic billabong.

The billabong bill. The billabong bill. Bye, everybody. Bye. Money won't pay Working on Money won't pay Working on Money won't pay Working on Money won't pay

Working on Money won't pay MaximumFun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Audience supported.