Patreon Newsletter #25: November 2023

From Arnie

Started the month with a fun (but exhausting) trip to Italy with Emily. I’d never been before, and frankly, I think I can be a bit of a contrarian so I’ve spent most of my life poo-pooing the idea of going to Italy or France because “oh, everyone goes there.” But you know what… Italy is beautiful and the food is amazing. We went to Florence, Bologna and Rome, did some food tours, I discovered a newfound love of anchovies, Emily drove a Ferrari race car on an official track… we did a lot.

At work we launched the Jackbox Party Pack 10 this month. It’s wild that I’ve been with Jackbox Games for nearly 18 years and helped make over 50 games. Currently my days are jam packed with meetings about the cool stuff Jackbox is working on for the next couple years. It’s a busy time. Can’t talk about any of it.

TV – In no particular order.

• Taskmaster s13
• Survivor s45 - Watching with the kiddo. It’s their first season and they’re loving it. I’ve actually seen most Survivor seasons although I took the last few off. It’s been nice getting back into it.
• Golden Bachelor
• Reservation Dogs s3

Movies – Best to… less best. Between Halloween watching, stuff watched on planes and a few Blank Check movies… watched a lot this month.

1. Zodiac
2. Us
3. GoldenEye
4. The Social Network
5. Addams Family Values
6. Blackberry
7. Cabin in the Woods
8. Addams Family
9. John Wick 4
10. Panic Room
11. Megan
12. A View to a Kill
13. The World is Not Enough
14. Murder Mystery
15. Tomorrow Never Dies
16. Stoker
17. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
18. Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Video Games

Spider-Man 2

Super Mario Bros Wonder

Tabletop

• The Thing - Finally played this board game based on my favorite horror movie. It’s a really fun social deduction game.
• Wingspan
• Just One

Arnie

From Matt:

October 2023

Happy Spoooooky Halloween Season! (probably over when you read this). It’s been a busy time, so not too many updates. Lots of comfort food/TV/games/etc.

Audio:

Back to McElroy Family podcasts, but I’m not quite caught up with Steeplechase yet. Related, I went to see Band of Horses at Salt Shed here in Chicago with some friends. I hadn’t been to a concert in a long time, and it was my first time at that venue. Sound is a bit cavernous, but it is a…salt shed.

Books:

Dug into the second volume of the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin manga. Not burning through at the pace I expected..

TV/Movies/Web stuff:

Eh, not much. Reruns while I was working sometimes. Halloween Baking Championship is back. Reruns of Cheers and Frasier. Also, the new Frasier. It’s alright. If that’s your type of thing. It could find its footing a bit like the best sitcoms of this type usually need to do.

Games:

Starting playing A Little to the Left, a cozy organization game. Very relaxing and fun. It’s always delightful when a cat paw messes up the thing you just organized.

Food:

We went to Etta and really enjoyed it. It’s one of those places I’ve been meaning to try for a while. Also, I recommend Dorian’s Through The Record Shop. We went there a few years ago before the pandemic (I think on a weeknight), and we enjoyed some cocktails and a pretty chill atmosphere. We went again after Etta and there were a couple of DJs and still great cocktails. Might be too crazy for someone my age on a weekend night, but it was still fun.

Matt

From Adal:

October seemed to simultaneously fly by in a flash and also drag on for years. I didn’t make it out to any Haunted Houses and didn’t get to watch many horror films but I DID eat 27 mini-packets of M&M’s in the last 3 days so I can’t exactly call this month a failure.

Jemma and I went to Italy and Montenegro. I’d like to say it was for vacation but I was simply trying to see if Arnie had really gone. I don’t want to call him out but I couldn’t seem to find a single Italian who knew who Arnie was when I flashed his photo around Rome. Let’s all just humor him and agree he went. Sweet bello Arnie.

I always like to donate to Palestine Children's Relief Fund and encourage anyone interested to do so if they have the means. I also donated this month to Doctors Without Borders - Gaza.

Here’s what I consumed in October:

TV:

• Our Flag Means Death season 2
• Gen V
• Beckham

Movies:

• Bodies Bodies Bodies
• X

Music:

• Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
• The Mountain Goats - Jenny From Thebes
• Daodi Freyr - I Made An Album
• Butterfingers - Breakfast At Fatboys
• Oasis - (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?

Other Stuffs:

• Read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and loved it
• I’m about 75 pages into Babel by R.F. Kuang
• Was a guest once again on one of my favorite podcasts to join - The Restricted Section
• Listened to the Pablo Torree Finds Out podcast as a few people notified me there’s an episode about finding out why everyone nowadays yells ‘Let’s Gooooo!’. Something I’ve voiced concern about before.
• Enjoying the ‘60 Songs That Explain the 90’s’ podcast
• Just played and enjoyed the board game Space Base
• Hey Riddle Riddle guested on Reality Escape Pod to play a fantastic online escape room based on mythology. You can check out the episode here: https://roomescapeartist.com/2023/10/24/repod-s6e4-hey-riddle-riddle-theseus/

Please let me know what you’ve been enjoying!

Love & Large Please

Adal

We have a new merch store at TeePublic. We’ll be adding new designs in the coming months!

Almost all of our merch at Topatoco is now on sale as we make the transition.