Patreon Newsletter #7: May 2022!

From Arnie:

A big busy month. Really enjoyed Adal and Jemma’s wedding. So many wonderful people to catch up with, including a lot of old friends and Magic Tavern actors (there’s a lot of overlap in that venn diagram). I gave a little speech during the ceremony. I opened my speech, “Two weeks ago Adal asked me if I’d write something or do a reading at the wedding and I said yes, because it’s an honor, and because I like attention.”

TV – The tv I watched this month from favorite to less favorite.

1. Better Call Saul s5 - Excited to be prepped for the final season. Such a great show.
2. Russian Doll s2
3. Survivor
4. some season of Master Chef Jr. I’ve lost count.

Movies – Same deal: best to… least best. (Most were pretty decent.)

1. Drive My Car
2. Everything Everywhere All at Once
3. Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel - I know… it’s actually a stand-up special not a movie, but Letterboxed counted it as a movie, so screw it, I put it in here.
4. Paterson
5. The Batman
6. Funny Face
7. Holy Smoke
8. Darkman
9. Jackass Forever
10. Ghostbusters 2

Games – Even less game stuff than usual this month but I did visit some family in Ohio over Easter weekend and my nephews continue to really love 5 Minute Dungeon. I also got them into Skull.

Books - Still haven’t finished (or gotten back to) “Weather” by Jenny Offil. But to prep for doing a reading at Adal’s wedding I read a shit ton of poems, and I gotta say… it’s nice to make some time for poems.

Here’s one of the poems I really liked but ended up not using in my speech (in case you need a love poem in your day… and you know what, I think you do):

Shoulder, Shoulder, Slow, Slow

By Iain S. Thomas

I had this dream that we somehow evolved without vocal chords

And the only way we could talk to each other was by touching our own or each other’s skin

And entire books were written entirely in hugs and hand holding and letting go of each other

And we’d hold and touch and let go of each other in all these different ways to say all these different things

And when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon he just put his hand over his heart and held it there with his other hand and it said everything to everyone watching at home

And the news presenter did the same and so did everyone else

And there are museums you can go to, in my dream, where they have a set of mechanical hands and you put them against your heart and you can hear his exact words as he said them

And when people got married everyone just held each other’s hands in a circle and cried and all the funerals in my dream looked exactly the same

And the people with the lightest fingers spoke so softly

And fishermen and workers had low gravelly voices

And I dreamed this dream for so long, I learned how to speak entirely in touch

And I write poetry on my wife’s back every evening before she sleeps

And her skin and her nerve endings are a kind of paper than only remembers the ink written on it for a moment

And while it loses something in my terrible translation, my favourite work goes

“Shoulder, shoulder, slow, slow, neck, arm, back, curve, slow, slow, shoulder, shoulder, slow, slow, neck, arm, back, curve, slow, slow”

And it is so much more eloquent than anything I’ve ever said and so much more beautiful than anything I’ve ever written, with words.

Appearances – What other podcasts was I on?

• Star Wars Minute - Matt and I were the guests for a week of Star Wars Minute episodes, discussing, I believe minutes 41 through 46 of Solo. Matt brings the deep Star Wars love and I bring silly observations. I believe you can either listen to these on their podcast feed or watch us on their YouTube channel.

Work - We announced Fibbage 4 is coming this fall. That’s the game Ryan DiGiorgi (Craig) is directing this year. The game I’m working on… will maybe be announced in the next month or so. Just know I’m very hard at work on something very silly.

One Last Thing – In the comments, share a made-up line of poetry.

Slow, Slow,

Arnie

From Matt:

Had a fun time at Adal’s wedding. Great to see people in person.

Still binging the David Suchet version of Poirot and the Marple series from the mid-2000s. Took a break to watch Little Shop of Horrors one night. Why not? Did you know that movie originally ended like the musical where the plants take over the world?  Probably.

I started listening to A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Scwab after listening to all of the original Timothy Zahn Thrawn trilogy. Thanks for all the great recommendations last month. Probably should listen to some non-fiction too. Just to mix it up. Guess I’m an audiobook instead of reading book guy now (for now).

I’m very close to finishing Arceus. Finished the main game and I’m sorting out the Pokédex. Downloaded Knights of the Old Republic to possibly revisit an old fave.

Putting together some monologues. Going to try to audition for some theater. I audition for film stuff a lot, but I haven’t done a monologue in years, so we'll see.

MY

From Adal:

Hey Future Lizards!

I’m married! The wedding was better than we could have imagined but it did go by in a blink. Everyone kept warning me that it goes by fast and I was like ‘uh yeah dude, maybe for you? But I’m MINDFUL.’ And then boom, everything was over. Arnie, Matt and JPC all did speeches/bits for the ceremony and they were unbelievably funny and lovely. Sadieh officiated and absolutely crushed it and Jemma’s vows had me laughing and crying to where I struggled to do my own. We even had a few friends use the puppet versions of Jemma and I to do a quick scene! Just an incredible night surrounded by the folks I love most.

The night before the wedding we hosted a small shindig at our place for friends and family and for the first time opened up ‘Rifai Tai’ the basement tiki bar we’re trying to cobble together! People seemed to enjoy it but now I have to learn to make some cocktails so I’m not just slinging beers and shots.

Jemma and I just got back from our Honeymoon (which is why the newsletters are late to be posted! Apologies!) and had a wonderful time. Neither of us is much for relaxing on the beach or sitting around for too long so we packed it full of some beautiful National and State Parks, a ton of highly recommended restaurants, gallons of tiki drinks, lots of scenic driving and a Manta Ray diving experience. Jemma ended up scuba diving with the Manta Rays and said it was one of the best experiences of her life! I was supposed to snorkel with them but then I threw up 9 times on the boat that brought us and 6 more times when I got back to the parking lot! So I didn’t get in the water at all and had what was maybe one of the worst 3 hours of my life. What a dichotomy of experiences!

By the time you read the next newsletter I will be 40!

Here’s what media I consumed in April -

TV:

• Shining Girls - I’m incredibly proud of my sister Sadieh as she’s fantastic in this show! Everyone should watch on Apple TV. So far she’s been in 3 of 4 episodes released and I keep rewinding her scenes to give a hoot and a holler! Very cool to see the people you love succeed! You can follow Sadieh on Twitter @SadiehR
• Outer Range - it’s like Yellowstone meets DARK which is heaven to me. VERY much enjoyed this show.
• The Outlaws
• The Circle Season 4 - there’s two surprise contestants that pop up in episode 2 that made Jemma lose her mind. I texted Erin about it and she had also screamed aloud. I wont’ spoil it but it’s very enjoyable.
• Russian Dolls Season 2
• Undone Season 2
• Barry Season 3
• Slow Horses
• Old Enough
• The Ultimatum

Movies:

• Everything Everywhere All At Once - as good as Erin told me it was. Excited to go back and watch again!
• Robin Robin
• Nobody
• Turning Red
• Tony Hawk: Until The Wheels Fall Off
• Catherine Cohen: The Twist? She’s Gorgeous
• Doctor Strange
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - was kind of bummed by this one. Didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would but there’s some very cool visual moments and I’m happy Sam Raimi is back directing movies. Did he ever stop? I don’t know.

Other Stuffs:

• Hey Riddle Riddle is getting back to doing live shows! We’re coming to LA on June 12th at Dynasty Typewriter and will offer a Livestream version of the show for folks who aren’t able to physically be there! You can find info and tickets here: https://www.heyriddleriddle.com/live
• Board games - played some new games with JPC, Rush and Pad that I really enjoyed! Nidavellir and CLANK!: Acquisitions Incorporated (kind of a Legacy version of CLANK)
• Played the boxed Escape game BlackBrim 1876 by Puzzling Pursuits and really enjoyed it! Just challenging enough to be fun and some super creative puzzles along the way.
• One of my favorite people in the world just guested on Off Book: The Improvised Musical! Please check out the recent episode with Alice Stanley Jr.!

I guested on the following podcasts!

• Tribal Council Podcast - a Survivor podcast talking about the current season!

Please let me know what you’ve been enjoying so I can check it out!

Love and Don’t Die

Adal

7:17pm