Wonderful! - Wonderful! Ep. 24: Tearaway Turtleneck

Episode Date: March 7, 2018

Griffin's favorite game franchise! Rachel's favorite poem about a state! Griffin's favorite self-care appointment! Rachel's favorite new jam! 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. Hello, this is Griffin McElroy. This is wonderful. Let's keep it casual this week, huh? Okay. I know we try to bring a sort of business-like sort of mindset to this, and we're always talking about business tips, and we're trying to remain formal with our audience. Griffin's wearing shorts right now.

Today is a shorts day. That's how casual he's keeping it. Do you not like the shorts? No, I like the shorts. I'm just, I'm trying to paint a picture. Rachel yells at me every time I wear shorts. That is not true. I love when you wear shorts. That's not true. You hate it when I wear shorts.

Okay, well, he said, she said. Yeah, well, we'll let the audience, they're going to side with you. No, they will. But they won't believe all the mean things you say about my shorts. Wait, just what's one of them, I think? You say, like, I bet you couldn't hold many marbles in those pockets. And you say things like, hey, great knees. And that one is sincere. I have wonderful knees. And they smell wonderful, too. Here's the thing that is true,

is that Rachel smells my knees sometimes and swears up and down that I have these downy, fresh knees. And I don't know why. I mean, I run with fabric softeners like three hours a day. But that's me. That's like my life. Why do you hate my fucking shorts so much? I love the shorts. They're great. Did you ever own a pair of pants that could be zipped or torn?

No. Oh, you didn't let me finish? No, no. You didn't let me finish? No, no. You didn't let me finish? I'm pretty sure the answer's no. So that the butt could hang out completely. No, go from long pants to short. Did you?

Yeah, I owned a couple. Listen, I was a theater kid. Why would that be useful in the theater? It has nothing to do with practicality. It's just like when you're a theater kid, you feel like you are able to get away with more sort of fashion risks were these like a khaki material one was a khaki material yes what was the other sort of more of a stretchy fabric okay and was this for when you would run off the stage onto the court yeah when i went when i left the stage where i was a high school musical yeah when

i was doing you know oklahoma and we'd finish and be like old farmer and they can't oh shit coach is gonna be so po'd if i don't get to practice right now and then i would dribble on over to basketball practice um no that's not a joke and a couple it's fun it's fun to just be like well you know what well you know what i think about this rip rip here's my freaking knees what would you here's a practical question what would you do with the discarded fabric once it was so glad you asked off i would zip them onto my arm zippers. So this was a look that was popularized by J.C. Chazet. If you'll remember from all the great music videos, he would take the two sleeves and he would just sort of mix them around where they would live on his body. And so he would do like maybe right arm, left leg or both arms or super long turtleneck.

Yeah. I like that. This is nothing. Can we do the hot segment? Actually, somebody on Twitter suggested that we call it Small Wonders. Yeah. And I love that very, very much. Yeah.

We had a couple of people suggest that. I'm sorry. I did not take your names. Do you have anything that you're like very much into right now? I had a couple of things that I wanted to bring up. Hit it. See, when you say right now, like for me, these are kind of timeless. Okay.

Just very quick. Hit it. Log flumes. Like the ride. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Log flumes. Like the ride? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Love them. Did you, what's your main exposure to log flumes? I mean, Six Flags.

Okay. But I like how they always went through kind of like a tree, nature-y area. That part's great. You know? That part's great, and I really did love that. And then like a very minimal splash at the end, usually. Oh, see, I only got those big dunks. We had one at camden park which was huntington's uh own amusement park that was spent a lot of time there had some fun the log flume when you ride on it the nature of the water that they never changed is as such that it was kind of like a mosquito beer bong

where you would go down and just sort of shotgun a few dozen skidos. Okay. I don't remember that part. Okay. Yeah. I always kind of enjoyed the kind of the nature-y jaunt through the trees. It's nice. And then you get a little scared at the end.

But that's life. And the other thing looked into, decided not to discuss, skee-ball. Yeah. Love skee-ball. Yeah. It's rigged. It's great. Anytime I go anywhere, if there's a skee-ball machine, I not to discuss. Skee-ball. Yeah. Love skee-ball. Yeah, it's rigged. It's great. Anytime I go anywhere, if there's a skee-ball machine, I'm playing it. Skee-ball's one of those things where I feel like for, like, everybody, you look at a skee-ball machine, and you're like,

I know my way around a skee-ball. You almost certainly don't. No. I feel like there's, like, eight people in the world who are good at skee-ball, and everybody else is just like, oh, skee-ball, I'm good at that. And you roll one ball, and you're like, oh, wait a minute, I fucking fucking stink at this can i tell you something that will absolutely not surprise you what austin has a competitive skeeball league of course um what did i want to bring what are your small wonders here's it this lamp i bought a new lamp for the

office i've had many different lighting solutions for this office, including a weird sort of LED ball. We discussed that on the show. Remember it changed colors? And you were very excited about it. It's very bad. It lasts for about a half hour and then you have to charge it. Why I think I wanted a permanent lighting solution

for my office that involved like charging a ball, I do not know. Let me silence my phone. That's just rude of me. That's just rude of me. That'll get you kicked out of the voice actors guild. If you do that in a session. What did I miss though?

Looks like Henry had a diaper change. I also had a very small lamp with like one of those shitty like candelabra light bulbs in it. Again, why I thought that could like light an entire space. I do not know. So I went and I got like a nice, like full size LED light bulb, a table lamp. And man, look around this space. Don't look around.

It's very messy in here. But it's so nice, and you get so much light. And it's, you know, we've lived in this house for four years now, and it's kind of wild that it's taken me this long to actually find a light that makes this room look good. But it changes everything. And I spend so much time in here. It's nice to be able to, like, see things

and not have it be, like, Go golem's fucking crypt or whatever yeah and also scientists say i did some research on this trying into a long segment that light of the right amount of light in a room can extend your lifespan by 30 years wow that's significant'd think you'd be hearing more about that little stat. Yeah, and I did learn about that. So, who goes first this time? I have no idea. Uh-oh. I think it's me. Okay. My first thing is

a little sort of um, it's a universe. It's an experience. It's a philosophy, a life philosophy. It is a um, just sort of a way of getting through this this crazy adventure that we call living it is pokemon oh no oh yes he's doing it i'm really doing it this time it was only a matter of time. Now, can we agree at the beginning of this segment that it will not be very, very,

very long? It's gonna be as long as it's gonna be. I've been it's been pent up inside me for like 20 years. No, that's true. And this is it. I feel like this is part of my brand or whatever.

Especially like the Polygon side of things, because I am a fan of this video game and also cross-platform multimedia franchise, which I think, I don't know, people treat it with like humor, right? Because it's part of my brand or whatever, despite the fact that I'm a 30-year-old man. But I don't think that really matters, because I actually think it's a very good thing and not just like a weird vestigial part of my brand or whatever, despite the fact that I'm a 30-year-old man. But I don't think that really matters, because I actually think it's a very good thing, and not just like a weird vestigial part of my childhood that I refuse to let go of, or whatever. Can I ask you a question? Yes, please.

Why now? Why am I talking about it on this episode of Wonderful? Yeah. I didn't have, couldn't think of anything else. Okay. So I've been playing the Pokemon video games from Nintendo and Game Freak and the Pokemon Company since I was in middle school. And my sort of like appreciation for the core concept behind the games hasn't really diminished. It was first released in Japan in 1996. So how old is that? That's like 22 years old. Okay, not bad. how old is that that's like 22 years old okay not bad um and then it made its way to other countries over the following few years as pokemon red and blue it comes in multiple versions because each one has different pokemon you can catch so this was this is kind of nefarious but it also

kind of like makes like the whole idea of like oh you have to trade them back and forth to collect them all or you can just buy both like i did because friends were hard to come by. It's easier to buy two Game Boys than it is to make one friend. Griffin has that stitched on a little cross-stitch in his room. It's true. So the core games have had multiple re-releases and special editions. There's six sort of core sequels that have come out throughout the past couple decades across all of Nintendo's handhelds. still rolling strong. The latest game came out last fall.

If you've never played one, Pokemon's all about collecting various of these titular Pokemon in an effort to fill out an encyclopedia called a, how much do you know about Pokemon? Pokedex. Fuck yeah, dude. Yes.

I have absorbed so much just being in your presence. Uh, and in addition to that, you also train a team of six Pokemon that you take with you, that you take to the world's various gyms and battle them to collect their badges and ultimately become the strongest trainer in the land. Each Pokemon has like different kind of moves that they can do in fights. They have different elemental types like fire and water and rock and bug you know the element bug uh that one's on the period i think it's like right under argon um

and basically you're just trying to figure out how to make a versatile team that can take on each gem that's like basically what every game is about it hasn't changed a whole lot for better. And for worse, Pokemon can evolve, take on different forms, and become sort of stronger. And you can trade Pokemon with a friend or online to like fill out your collection. So like that hasn't changed, really since 1996, when this game first came out in Japan and Pokemon Red and Green. I played Pokemon Blue was my first one in 1998, or something like that. And so it hasn't changed, but I cannot stress enough. And the reason that it became such a success and really became such a big, like, thing I was such a big fan of, is because of how revolutionary this game was back in the 1990s. Did you ever have a Game Boy?

I know you didn't have like a lot of video game sort of exposure growing up. No, I mean, what was tricky for me was that I entered high school in 1996. Ah, okay. And that was kind of where the roads diverged a little bit. I think so. Like if you were going to continue playing video games in high school, you were going to be like a gamer. I definitely don't think that that's that categorization happens today when like it's everybody's doing it. But yes, back then it was

back then. Yeah, it was it wasn't quite so ubiquitous. So yeah, so I, as I mentioned before, had a Sega and we had some PC games. But in high school, my interest kind of fell off. And that was kind of mid 90s, right when you were really leaning in. So back then, if you had a Game Boy, which I had one, I think I also got like a Game Boy Pocket or something like that, which was like the smaller but still black and white Game Boy. It's not black and white. It's like four shades of green or something like that. Anyway, I really liked it. Like, I liked being able to play video games while I was on the go. We took a lot of big family vacations. We would drive down to, you know, Myrtle Beach or something.

That's like a 10-hour drive. Or down to Florida, which was like a bonkers 18-hour drive. And I liked having my Game Boy because I could play games on it. Problem was, there weren't that many, like, big games for the Game Boy. There were a lot of, like, here's a version of a game that came out on NES or Super NES that is so like boiled down and it takes you like 15 minutes to beat or it's just like not very good. It was basically like the screen on a graphing calculator. It wasn't just that there were like tons of technical limitations to these things like the storage on a Game Boy cartridge was like nothing. And that's not to say that this is the only good game or anything like that,

like Super Mario Land 2 like owns getting those six golden coins it's very good like a lot of the nintendo like first party stuff was very good but i love rpgs like i've loved final fantasy and stuff like this my whole life and there's just not really anything great they made a few final fantasy games for game boy that i didn't really ever get into pokemon came out here was this game that was enormous and had this social element to it and this collection element to it. And this like really kind of cool RPG system to it. And it would take you dozens and dozens and dozens of hours just to beat it. And then, you know, hundreds if you wanted to try to collect them all. And this was in the thing that you could keep in your

pocket. And in 1998, that was like, that didn't happen. This was the first time that that happened for me. And it was so like, that's kind of still how I like to play games. Like, this is why I like the Switch so much is because I can like play it on the go. And I have these big experiences that I can take with me and have control over where I want to play them. And I feel like an ownership over them because I know I can play them wherever I want to. And this was the first time that really happened for me and for everyone who played it. And then you combine this idea of just like, here's my team. Let's see what you're working with. Oh, I don't have that one.

Can I get that one? You want to battle our teams and see who's got the better, like all of that shit made this like the best like gaming experience for me ever back in 1998 when this came out. And so that's kind of, that's kind of like why it why it occupies such a special place also like it's not just like the rpg like battling stuff the idea of a collection game is really enticing to me um yeah notice that yeah you're very thorough in your and it's not it doesn't come from like a compulsory thing it's just like a different activity that you can do in a video game other than the typical video game stuff.

And I think that's really special. This game was first thought up by Satoshi Tajiri, who wanted to make a game inspired by his childhood hobby, which was insect collecting. That's very good. And it's about going out into the world and finding these things and having a collection and being in this like kind of interesting big open vibrant world um all of those things were

so unique to me back in 1996 and or back in 98 rather um and i still like i don't know i still enjoy it like i still enjoy that being a part of like my gaming diet in addition to like playing you know more violent fair or you know deeper more adult sort of rpgs or other things like that here's this like just kind of nice game where you can get in there and get lost for can i ask you something yeah are they still making like new pokemon oh yeah yeah so like when you open up a new game is there like oh hey there's a new guy i think there's like 750 somewhere around there yeah there's a ton i collected them all back in red and blue i got all 151 uh it was heartbreaking i got up to like 115 and my friend tried to use some cheats on my cartridge we were

trading pokemon back and forth and he just got in a game shark but he's too afraid to use it on his own cartridge because he thought he might lose the file so he did it on mine killed it lost everything had to start over but i did fought back tooth and nail backstage 2000 at the easter pageant maybe it was 1999 is the easter pageant i had already done my scenes at the easter pageant but me and my friend travis were back there not my brother another travis don't worry about it he was like hey guess what um, guess what? I needed Kangaskhan. And I, well, no, how did it happen? We were playing and he traded me next to the last Pokemon I needed. And I was like, all I need is Kangaskhan. Went to the Safari Zone, caught Kangaskhan first time.

All 150. Can you tell me a little bit about that Pokemon? Sucks to catch them. Only get them in the Safari Zone and they like run away right away. So you just have to throw a ball and just hope for the best. This has been 20 minutes. I have done literally what you asked me not to do. What's your first thing?

I decided. And I appreciate those of you that bared with us last week. I was very sick, had no voice. So I decided to start off my return with a return to the Poetry Corner. Oh, hey! We're back!

Let me pick up the knitting i was doing last time i was here oh yeah oh no it's full of bugs i was eating a jelly sandwich over my knitting last time i guess i left a little bit of jelly in there gotta start over it's okay we'll fight back who's the poetry this time uh the poet i'm bringing this week is Bob Hickok. Wild Bob Hickok. You bastard. You rotten mouth bastard wild Bob. He actually has kind of something in common with some of the other poets I've brought in that he has a very kind of working class upbringing.

Okay. He, you know, isn't like the highly trained academic poet. He actually, before he began teaching, ran a successful automotive dye business in Michigan. What is automotive dye? Oh, you know, I don't know. There's only so much research I can do, Griff. And it was only in 2004, after publishing four collections of poetry, he earned an MFA after having previously no undergraduate or graduate degree.

Wow. I didn't even know you could do that. He was born in the 60s, so this is pretty late in life for him to get started. So the poem I am bringing is from 2008. You can find it in The New Yorker. It's called A Primer. So I'm just going to read it. Is that cool?

Yes, please. It's kind of a fun poem. Don't worry. It's not A Primer, or Primer. So I'm just going to read it. Is that cool? Yes, please. It's kind of a fun poem. Don't worry. It's not anything too sentimental. There's not any sexual content in it, is there? I don't believe so. Okay. I just want to give folks a heads up before we read anything less sexual.

You did D'Angelo that one week, so we can't pretend like we're prudish. You didn't hear the final episode, but I put in a big earthquake alarm right before, and it was like, wow. Here comes sexual content. I'm going to put it in here just in case it does get sexual. Okay. I guess it depends how you feel about Michigan. A primer. I remember Michigan fondly as the place I go to be in Michigan.

The right hand of America waving from maps or the left pressing into clay, a mold to take home from kindergarten to mother. I lived in Michigan 43 years. The state bird is a chain factory gate. The state flower is Lake Superior, which sounds egotistical, though it is merely cold and deep as truth. A Midwesterner can use the word truth, can sincerely use the word sincere. In truth, the Midwest is not mid or west.

When I go back to Michigan, I drive through Ohio. There is off I-75 in Ohio a mosque, so life goes corn, corn, corn, mosque. I wave at Islam when we're not getting along with on account of the towers as I pass. Then Ohio goes corn, corn, corn, billboard goodbye Islam. You never forget how to be from Michigan when you're from Michigan. It's like riding a bike of ice and fly fishing. The Upper Peninsula is a spare state in case Michigan goes flat. I live now in Virginia, which has no backup plan, but is named the same name as my mother. I live in my mother again, which is creepy.

But so is what the skin under my chin is doing. Suddenly there's a pouch like marsupials are needed. The state joy is spring. Osiris, we beseech thee, rise and give us baseball, is how we might sound were we Egyptian in April when February hasn't ended. February is 13 months long in Michigan. We are a people who by February want to kill the sky for being so gray and angry at us. What did we do is the state motto. There's a day in May when we're all tumblers, gymnastics is everywhere, and daffodils are asked by young men to be their wives. When a man elopes with a daffodil, you know where he's from. In this way, I have given you a primer. Let us all be from somewhere. Let us tell each other everything we can. That's very good.

Isn't that nice? It is very nice. It's weird. Like, what's your take on that? You're a poetry. I'm a poetry gal. You're a poetry fan. Yeah.

Bob Haycock is one of those poets that I think the academic types find kind of too accessible, I guess. He's very conversational. He's kind of funny. And so a lot of the people that kind of spend their lives studying poetry find him to be a little too simplistic. But I really enjoy how easy it is to connect with him and what he's saying and the very concise way he gets at like truths about like, for example, like February being 13 months long in Michigan, I feel like is a very kind of fun way to explain what it's like. Just a reminder, Rachel is not from Michigan. I'm not from Michigan, but I'm from the Midwest.

Sure. Just a reminder, Rachel is not from Michigan. I'm not from Michigan, but I'm from the Midwest. Sure. And gosh, those last two lines, you all know how I'm a big sucker for a- For a good button. Yeah, for the end of the poem. And the fact that this poem, and these lines stick with me, like when I was thinking about what to bring this week.

These lines just like, I couldn't remember the name of the poem, couldn't remember what it's about, but I could remember, let us all be from somewhere. Let us teach each other, let us tell each other everything we can. Like, I love those two lines. Like, it's just, there's this urgency to it. Just like, I just told you this really long, rambling kind of poem about the places that I've lived and what I know about it. And the reason I'm doing that is I think it's important for all of us to kind of share these parts of ourselves and these experiences. So that's my poem this week.

That's a good one. Thank you. I would love to tell you a poem in Griffin's Poetry Corner. Okay. But it's spelled with a K, and it's backwards, and it's like crayons. And he's like, what's he doing? Oh, I thought you were getting ready to do the stinger. I am.

Oh, okay. Continue. Yeah. Okay, I have a message for Carissa. And it is from Oliver. Hey, Snugbug. I know our anniversary only really comes up once every four years, but I figured hearing this message from our

favorite podcasting couple would make up for that fact. This counts as a non-gift for our non-anniversary. I love you so much, and you make my life truly wonderful. Is this a leap year marriage? I think so, because they asked for it as close as possible to 228. That's so great. Yeah. But also not because, like, that means you only get to go to Red Lobster once every four years. Oh, no.

Everyone does that, by the way, right? Like, we do it. Red Lobster on the anniversary. Get some garlic butter boys and just slop them down. Pick out the lobsters when we want. And then we take them home and free them. And then we have a little lobster fight in the kitchen. Can I break the bit forers we want and then we take them home and free them and then we have a little lobster fight in the kitchen can i break the bit for a second and then we kiss what can i break the bit for a second i've never been to red lobster what it's very true did you

never graduate from high school because you go to red lobster as part of that no the ceremony we would walk right off the stage and keep walking the two and a half miles. You'd throw up your cap and put on your bib. No. We got to get you to shrimp fest, babe. I know. I'm going to ruin you with crab legs. Oh, that's beautiful.

What's the next one? You're back in the poetry corner, by the way. That was a poem. Oh, okay. It was a short one like E.E. Cummings. You just couldn't see the punctuation and stuff. I feel like E.E. Cummings is your go-to. Yeah. This message is for Benji. It is from Emma. Hey, Benj. Thanks for being my ermine and partner in science and for letting me nap in your room. I hope this message finds you well. I think you are wonderful. I like the name Benji. Uh, yeah.

I like also the name Binge. Just sort of shortened down, which is what they said in the message here, and I like that a lot. What's an ermine? Do-do-do-do-do-do. Google away. Gonna find out what an ermine is. An ermine is a stout, a stoat, especially when it's white winter coat.

It's a stout-bodied moth that has creamer white wings. No, it's not. You're showing me like a fucking ferret. But, like, the dictionary's like, it's a moth. But Google's like, no, dictionary, it's a ferret. Yeah, I've only ever heard it in clothing terms. Oh, no, they use these guys for clothing? Yeah.

That stinks. Look at these guys. Like an ermine stole. Look at him. Yeah, he's very cute. Oh, shoot. Yeah. Oh, no, we got to get all the ermines.

The only way I can protect them. Oh, God, are you okay? Sorry. The only way we're going to be able to protect all these ermines is if we go find them all, wrangle them up, and keep them in our house with us. I don't think our cat would handle that well. I think our cat would be like a little dad. Aww.

Hi, I'm Ben. And I'm Adam. And we host The Greatest Generation. And we're here to announce a new show. The Greatest Discovery is Maximum Fun's new podcast about the new Star Trek series, Star Trek Discovery. We're going to be recapping

every single episode. It's going to be a limited run podcast, and we hope you'll join us. It's a show that we're really excited to watch, and we're really excited to talk about it and provide our signature f***ing fart joke coverage of a new entry in the Star Trek franchise. So if you like irreverence, adult humor, irreverence again,

and Star Trek, we really hope you'll join us on Tuesdays on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts to the greatest discovery. Oh, they made us edit dick out of the last promo that we submitted, so. You should keep that part in the promo. My second thing is massages. Ooh.

I have never really talked about this like on this podcast or really any other because I worry it makes me sound, like, super bougie. But I fucking love massages. Griffin sits at a desk, like, 12 hours a day, at least, every day. Yes. And it hurts his back very badly. It sucks a lot.

It's funny, like, I was nervous about talking about this, because it's not like I'm working in the salt mines. I was nervous about talking about this because it's not like I'm working in the salt mines or I always go that's not like a good go to like physical labor job because there's so many jobs that involve actual like, yeah, moving your body. But the fact is like sitting hunched over a desk for a very long time is also fucked up for your back for a lot of different reasons. But I love massages for this for this kind of reason and i'll get into that but i usually try to get them like every month if i can once a month um so i don't want to dive into like the kind of alternative medicine side of this which isn't to say that it doesn't have like physiological benefits but the idea that like area you can cure anything with the right kind of

massage yeah i don't want to dive into that. But studies have found that massage can help with a number of issues ranging from like headaches, soft tissue strains and sports injuries to like other kinds of issues like stress related problems like insomnia and anxiety, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is generally viewed as an effective way of relieving stress and pain and muscle tension, which like Rachel said, like I sit at a desk for long, long stretches of the day and I recognize that that's not the healthiest thing. I did just buy a new standing desk. I'm very excited about that.

Look forward to that on some episode of Wonderful in the Future where I'm like, standing up is so great. And I'm like really trying to sell it, really, I would just love a good seat right now. You know, what's wonderful standing, I think at that point, it'd be like sitting, I took it for granted. So I get this like bonkers amount of tension in my shoulders and my back. I have also kind of engineered a profoundly stressful life for myself, which exacerbates those physical problems and also introduces what I would call like a significant mental strain as well. And a couple of years ago, I started making regular appointments to see a massage therapist about once a month. And I can't drive home enough, like how genuinely

helpful it's been. Um, which again, I, I was worried would make me sound very bougie, but this really doesn't have to be cost prohibitive. In Austin, there are places where you can go and get one hour treatments, either like the tissue or Swedish massages or whatever for like 30, 35 bucks, which isn't nothing but like once a month to get this done and have it very, very much help, I think is totally worth it. Or you can splurge and go in for like a 100 or plus dollars session somewhere if you want the works. And I've always been really bad about taking self care seriously, like in in general, especially lately when I've become like busier and we we have had a child, but this one sort of element of my life is, is, um, I'm very grateful that I think of it as like non-negotiable. Um, because when I leave after getting a massage, I always

feel much more like relaxed than I did when I went in and that bonkers amount of tension is so much better. Um, but what I really appreciate is having this opportunity to lie down and not think about anything for an hour yeah which is ancillary and it's not to say that like i'm not also enjoying the the physical element of the massage but like i've never really gotten into meditation which i know i probably would be very helpful for me but i i I find it so hard to just kind of empty my thoughts for an extended period of time. I've definitely tried and it's it's really hard to make that stuff quiet down. I'm always always thinking about something, usually something that I have to do in a massage. I don't really have any other option, right? Like I'm nude, and I'm in a strange place.

I can't just like pull out my phone and check my email or whatever or look at the pokemon i can't look at the pokemon which wait rachel says that i just have a little book that i pull out and have some of my favorite guys in it um there's something about like making this decision to take a break for an hour, that makes me take it seriously. That makes me take this like kind of self-care very seriously. Well, and the investment too. There is an investment too, yeah. And it's helpful for two reasons.

One, like I desperately, and I didn't realize this until I started doing it, I desperately need those times where I'm not worried about anything. Even for an hour, that doesn't sound like a long period of time, but it is essentially a reset of this like accumulation that builds up that is like so, so vital. And two, and this is going to sound kind of counterintuitive. I actually find that that is the state in which I am able to think up some of my best ideas. Which is not to say that like I go get a massage so I can finally crack that, you know, new Adventure Zone arc or whatever. Although that definitely did happen.

But that's not my goal, right? Because that's kind of a shitty way to think about it. But it is only when I can sort of push everything out of my brain and just kind of relax for an hour and not be constantly worried about how else I could be spending that time because I am nude and I spent some money to be there. Well, and I will also say another thing that comes with a massage is the understanding that there will be silence between you and the masseuse, which I know, for example, we've talked about before when Griffin gets a haircut, I think he tends to feel this social pressure to kind of engage and be charming. Yeah.

And I think with a massage, you aren't expected to kind of keep up any kind of chatter. Yes. Which is probably helpful for you. When you, I am an anxious person. And so that's not like a joke. not like a joke like when i have to then engage in a conversation um with somebody who isn't somebody who i like absolutely absolutely trust or whatever it's really hard for me to like qualify that but it does cause me some amount of like mental like you know what i've noticed what this is this kind of the difference between me and griffin that i've noticed the longer we've

been together when we are out in public and we are in a kind of a service environment, I think Griffin will do his best to have a conversation and be friendly and warm. I don't feel that pressure. And I feel like that probably ultimately puts more pressure on Griffin. puts more pressure on Griffin. But I am more than happy to sit silently until the time allotted has passed, whereas Griffin will have a conversation about the weather or something that is happening. And it's not to say I don't enjoy that, but it does like, it is, it is like, it is stressful, I guess, in a way. And so yeah, like not having the onus of that on me during a massage is also very like, it is a place of complete just like yeah it's a void that i'm like i'm floating in the sunken place and it's like i'm able to

think and or not think like and and all of that i don't mean to make this sound like it is just a great place to go and chill out for a while like uh, uh, massage therapists are, are incredibly talented in the work that they provide is, is, is really, really vital, um, to people like me and also people who are suffering from, you know, worse things that, that can only find relief or can find, uh, you know, major relief through massage. Um, there's so many benefits of doing it and i'm just really glad i started doing it i guess just like uh i am i'm glad that i have like a self-care thing that i can kind of return to and come back to because uh that is not something that i thought of at all four years and that was not sustainable at all you didn't start doing this until you moved to austin right i didn't start doing this until you moved to Austin, right? I didn't start doing this until like 2016 or so. Yeah.

And yeah, I think it's important to practice self-care just like no matter what it is, if it's not massage, whatever. But like I also think it's important to have like a appointment, like an appointment for self-care. And that is what this is for me. Yeah. What's your second thing? Okay. My second thing is a new single from Janelle Monae.

Ooh! Her last album was Electric Lady in 2013. Holy shit! Yeah, which I was a huge fan of, downloaded. Yeah, I didn't realize it was five years ago. Yeah, nothing since then. So her new album isn't out yet. It doesn't come out until April 27th.

It's going to be called Dirty Computer. But the single is Make Me Feel. It came out end of February. So it's pretty fresh. Can I listen to it a little bit? Yes, please do. Shag carpet You know I love it So please don't stop it It's like I'm powerful With a little bit of tender

And emotional Sexual bender Mess me up Yeah but no one does it better There's nothing better That's just the way you make me feel That's just the way you make me feel That's just the way you make me feel. That's just the way you make me feel. That's just the way you make me feel.

This is the best song in the, let me think, hold on. Let me think of the best songs. No, this is it. This is the best song I ever recorded. Here's what, like, I mean, obviously the song is incredible. Like, I mean, obviously the song is incredible. This song made me come to terms with my sorrow about Prince's death, because Prince is still very much alive and well in this song. Yes, in sort of the spirit of this very good music. Yeah, it reminds me a lot of the song Kiss.

Oh, for sure. Like, it's got Prince vibes down. But it's also like, I also think it's like super super hip. And like, it's like that main hook of that. I know. I could hear that in my dreams tonight. And for me, like, it's less about the lyrics and more just about like the sound and energy of the song and just kind of the cadence of it. It's such a jam. So this song is being kind of heralded as kind of a like powerful anthem for bisexuality, which just like, hey, go watch the music video, listen to the song and whatever, but go watch the music video. It's Janelle Monae and Tessaompson and it's like fresh as fuck there's like a lot of uh i've seen some people call it kind of have you actually seen the video or just listen to the song uh people think it's kind of referring to um the episode of black mirror san junipero uh just the

kind of the aesthetic of sort of the core narrative part of the video seems kind of familiar there. Well, it's very, like, 80s inspired. Which was a story about two women who fall in love in this—well, I don't want to give anything away. It's a really cool episode, though. And so there's a lot of imagery of just, like, Janelle Monae and Tessa Thompson sort of flirting with Janelle Monae and also a dude. And also there's the pre-chorus, which goes, it's like I'm powerful with a little bit of tender, an emotional sexual bender. And talking specifically about this song, about Make Me Feel, she has a quote here on a GLAAD article where she says, it's a celebratory song. I hope that comes across, that people feel

more free no matter where they are in their lives, that they feel celebrated. Because I'm about women's empowerment. I'm about agency. I'm about being in control of your narrative and your body. So there's like nothing explicit in in their saying, you know, this is this is a song about bisexuality. But I understand why people, you know, seeing the visuals in the video and reading the lyrics to the song. Like, I think it's totally understandable. I don't think you have to take a very long walk to get there. Bottom line, it's a jam. I think we can all agree that it's a fucking jam.

It's a jam. Just came out. Made me feel super hip to bring that to Wonderful this week. Yes. It's a very, very good song. I'm so glad you've shared it with me oh man i'm gonna listen to this song a million times today uh do you want to hear some submissions from our friends at home playing the home version of the wonderful game i would like that very much

jamie says this is a little nerdy okay a lotdy, but I derive a lot of happiness from Microsoft Excel. I love tidy tables with all the cells filled in. I love color coding my data so I can glance at the screen and see what's going on and I love, love, love the feeling of triumph when I finally get a formula to do what it's supposed to do. I hope it's not just me. I actually have to use Excel

a lot for my job. I have to make budgets for grant submissions, do a lot of the autosum features, adding up some columns and such. Real spreadsheet wizard. I don't know. I can't even do the autosum. I tried to the other day, and I fucked it up.

I was like, all right, so all these numbers added together equals J206. Nope. Incorrect. Kate says, the Bob Ross streams still going on on twitch and the community still okay i feel like i should maybe explain this twitch is a video game streaming website and uh i think like last year they started showing bob ross episodes live streaming obviously he's not making them he has passed away i believe and so they're just like showing these episodes and then there are thousands of commenters all like yeah dope strokes um and the community is still responding all these years later from people in the chat reacting to him

paint in real time to a counter bot for the number of times bob has beat the devil which is what he calls cleaning the brush by hitting it on the leg of his easel. That's awesome. To a finished painting always ending with a congratulatory chorus of Gigi in chat. It always warms my heart to see everyone still enjoying his paintings and genuinely cheerful outlook. That's awesome. It's very good. I watched one of these once when it first came out, and it was a little a little bit twitch like toxic like all sort of chat for certain communities that's not how i want to imagine it but no it's i imagine now it's only like the people who are here for bob yeah that's a good point uh kimberly

says uh we have had a very gray winter that has been ruining my spirits and a friend of mine suggested i watch the new queer eye for a boost and i am so glad she did I knew I was in trouble when I was crying 10 minutes into the first episode. Yup. Side note, I love crying at TV, too. I love how they chose guys from the South. I love how the Fab Five tailored their advice to the individuals, like showing one older guy how to shop at a thrift store, but showing the busy dad how to shop at Target,

where he could go get groceries and clothing at the same time. Finally, I love how personal the show's gotten, how it really seemed like the participants became real friends with the Fab Five every single time. My only complaint is that this wonderful show only had eight episodes. We watched those in about two days. Sweet Jesus. We did. The cast is incredible. I enjoyed the

old Queer. I didn't watch a ton of it, but also mostly because I never had cable. This is very good. Jonathan Van Ness, who is the grooming guru uh used to have a podcast on the max fun network called getting curious uh and he is he's fantastic yeah they're all fantastic karamo karamo karamo hosted a season of are you the one are you the one i think are you the one second chances maybe and we watched it and we thought who's this guy he is incredible he's very good uh he's good on that show too um yeah it is it is a very it is a

show with like so much heart yes it is absolutely a a beautiful beautiful thing um and it's also uh it's just queer right now not queer eye for the straight guy there is one episode uh where a a gay man who is like out to his friends but still like closeted to some other people in his life um it is also kind of can't like take care of himself it's more about like the show is a case study in like masculinity and yes uh a the idea of that essentially like translating to you're not supposed to take care of yourself. You're not supposed to – there are things that you're not supposed to worry about in terms of how you present yourself to the world. And that's such a like universal thing. your confidence, it's really interesting to see the transformation of these people as they kind of finally start to take a moment to recognize that investing in themselves

would potentially change their whole life. Yeah. It's incredible. And the lives of the people around them. Yes. And that is such an important topic right now. Yeah. And it's like this show handles it so, like for the most part, like so deftly.

Yes. That's it, though. Thank you all for listening. Thank you to Bowen and Augustus for the use of our theme song, Money Won't Pay. You can find a link to that in the episode description. Max fun, though. Thank you to Maximum Fun.

You can find any number of wonderful podcasts on that network. We love being a part of it. Yeah, they got shows like Judge John Honjman and Stop Podcasting Yourself and Switchblade Sisters and Tights and Fights and a bunch of others. I think that's it, though. Okay. I don't have one

this time. Do a skip. Quick, baby, do a skip. I can't think of one. Oh, Griffin, Pokemon situation. Let's say i'm in a battle and i am needing a pokemon that is fast and powerful maybe like scyther i don't know Bye. Hey! a Bullseye interview, I know it's somebody who does amazing work, but it's an actual conversation. I don't know where it's headed. Absolutely. You're absolutely right. You said it actually better than I did,

so I have to think about what that means. Hey, this is the straight talk that you're going to get on this show. Bullseye. Creators you know, creators you need to know. Find it at MaximumFun.org or wherever you get podcasts.