Patreon Newsletter #6: April 2022!

From Arnie:

A busy month. Flew to Tennessee for Adal’s bachelor party weekend. (I’ll let him convey as many or as few details as he wants about the trip. But I will say it was very wholesome. And fun.) Saw the musical Hadestown (touring company in Chicago) which was great, especially the emotional pivot it pulls off in the end. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since.

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

1. Our Flag Means Death
2. Severance
3. Survivor
4. Winning Time

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

1. My Neighbor Totoro - Rewatched again with the kiddo. Such a spectacular movie.
2. Turning Red
3. 20th Century Women - Between this and “C’mon C’mon” I’ve quickly gone from never hearing of Mike Mills to him being one of my favorites. (And no, it’s not the bass guitarist from REM Mike Mills. Different guy. Although, that would’ve been pretty cool, right?)
4. Licorice Pizza
5. Spider-Man: No Way Home
6. Dune
7. Death on the Nile
8. Solo - only five minutes of it but I watched each of those minutes very closely.
9. Scream (2022)
10. Crimewave

Games – Still doing a lot of NYT crossword puzzles. I can really only confidently get through a Monday or Tuesday without having to cheat some.

The video games I played (mostly with my daughter). In no particular order.

• Sackboy’s Big Adventure
• Overcooked
• The new Mario Kart courses (Coconut Mall was always one of my favorites on Wii)

I’m really excited to play the new Kirby game with the kiddo.

I also played a lot of tabletop games at Adal’s bachelor party weekend. I won’t name them all in case it’s a repeat from Adal’s update, but here were some of my favorites:

• Werewords
• Magical Athlete
• Blank It
• Skull
• Molkky - A very cool lawn game I’d never seen before.

Apparently I won a lot of the games over the weekend but let me assure you, it was entirely from luck, and not actual skill.

Books - What? I read some? Well… I read about half of a very short book, recommended to me a while back by my friend Jordan. “Weather” by Jenny Offil. It’s good.

Listening - This is by no means complete but some of the stuff I especially enjoyed listening to this month:

• Dungeons & Daddies podcast - Finally finished season one. Really loved it. I don’t tend to get into rpg podcasts and generally avoid fantasy podcasts since we’re already so steeped in it, but this show is really great. I’m a Patreon supporter and everything. Looking forward to digging into season 2. And we should have more of the cast on Magic Tavern. (I know Matt’s a fan of the show and booked Anthony and Beth on a few months back, which is what got me listening.)
• 4-Town - The kiddo’s top music request lately has been 4-Town, the fictional boy band from Turning Red.
• Hadestown soundtrack - I always enjoy a musical soundtrack where you can get the whole story. And I’ve listened to a bit of Anais Mitchell’s new album as well which I’ve also enjoyed.
• Blank Check podcast - Enjoying their Jane Campion and Sam Raimi serieses, both of which I’ve been hopping back and forth between (and will likely continue to do next month).

Appearances – Did a couple other podcasts this month.

• Jordan Jesse Go
• My Neighbors Are Dead (with Matt and Adal) - Another improv podcast with Chicago roots. In March they were celebrating their five year anniversary. The host interviews characters tangentially related to horror movies. I was on once before as the editor of the Paranormal Activity movies. (I had intentionally edited the footage to make it look like ghost stuff was happening… but I’d edited out all the werewolf stuff.) For the anniversary all three of us were on. I asked them what movies they’re surprised no one has done yet on the show, and we picked Cocoon off that list. It was a lot of fun and all makes perfect sense.

Work - I can’t really talk yet about the game I’m working on this year for Party Pack 9, besides that I think it’s really fun. But Brooke Breit and Tim Sniffen are both working on a game that’s already been announced, Roomerang, that’s a really great reality show elimination game and they’ve been doing a lot of behind the scenes videos and twitch streams for the game which you should really check out if you get a chance.

One Last Thing – In the comments, share the name of a song that either makes you dance or makes you cry. Just one, though, please.

Arnie

From Matt:

Another busy month…

This month has been a lot about finding balance: work, art, life, you name it! Little steps though. Cooking at home a lot and just trying to make my space more conducive to living healthy and creating stuff.

Signed up for BritBox so now I’m binging older English detective shows like Poirot and Marple. Also still playing Arceus.

I’m currently in a series of commercials for Jobs Ohio. I had a great time with the cast shooting these back in January. We actually got together and watched them one night as a group. It was fun to see everyone and hopefully, we’ll get to work together again. I’m going to be popping up in some more commercials which I’ll have to tell you about later.

I finished listening to The Magicians books which overall I liked, but left me feeling that a bit unsatisfied. Decided to get Heir to the Empire as my next audiobook (the old Timothy Zahn Star Wars novel). I’m pretty sure I read it when it first came out (when I was a teen), but I remember almost nothing about it. Maybe I’m remembering a different book? I also bought the hardcover of Light of the Jedi, the first High Republic novel. I often have SW novels that I get and never finish. What are some other fantasy/sci-fi books that I should get into? Something new or old. Either is good by me.

From Adal:

Hey Future Lizards!

March 2022 has been truly one of the best months of my old ass existence! I had my bachelor party at a friends lake house in Tennessee and we basically played board games and Jackbox games for 4 days straight and just laughed our asses off. The highlight might have been playing 2 rounds of the Jackbox game ‘Press The Button’ and everyone losing their damn minds. I almost just want to do a yearly board game retreat with friends now. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect celebration.

I also just got home from a cruise we took for Jemma’s birthday! We had an incredible time and got to visit the Bahamas, Aruba and Curacao (known for their liquor used in a ton of tiki drinks!). Jemma get’s a wild discount as a flight attendant so we got 8 day tickets for $160 a person which is the cost of one night at a hotel almost anywhere in the US so we might start cruising more often. Hit me up if you have any cruise ships or itineraries you recommend!

I’m thinking of doing a short trip the first week of June as my 40th birthday is 6/1. Sedona is high on my list of US places I’ve never visited but have extreme interest in. I’ve heard it’s choc-a-bloc with ufo’s, weird sites and conspiracies? Let me know if you have any recommendations for me there or in the surrounding area in Arizona!

As per my last newsletter update where I was curious if I could try and snatch the ‘most podcast guest spots crown’ I had a very kind listener (Ben S.) let me know that according to podchaser.com I’ve guested on 143 podcasts! My goal is 200 by the end of 2022.

I’m thinking about buying the new Kirby game for Switch but I’ve never played any previous Kirby games. Is it worth it? Is there another game(s) I should play first?

18 days until the wedding!!!

Here’s what media I consumed in March -

TV:

• Our Flag Means Death - just outstanding. Taikai Waititi can do no wrong in my eyes.
• Moon Knight
• Severance - Erin recommended this to me and I’m already obsessed. One of the most beautifully shot tv shows I’ve ever seen. Such a great mix of genres and a really neat cast.
• Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
• Peep Show Season 1 - never seen it but I’ve heard it’s a must watch. Only a few eps in but enjoying it so far!
• Survivor Season 42
• Zapped - checked this out as the premise is an Earth guy get’s ‘zapped’ into another dimension
• Queer Eye Germany
• Ghosts (BBC version) Season 2 & 3
• Top Chef Season 19
• Minx
• Human Resources

Movies:

• The Batman
• I Want You Back
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Jemma and I have been showing each other some of our favorite movies that the other has never seen and I finally got her into this one which is one of my all-time favorites. Origin of Love is a perfect song.
• Taylor Tomlinson: Look at You
• Untold: Crimes and Penalties

Other Stuffs:

• Board games - Can’t Stop, Puns of Anarchy, Magical Athlete, Skull, Werewords, Just One, Blank It. Also not a board game but played a neat lawn game at the bachelor party called Molkki (sp?).
• The podcast Jordan and Jessie Go with guest Arnie Niekamp! Listen to Arnie’s episode as he’s fantastic on it!
• Been on a big Jeni’s ice cream kick and ordered their Everything Bagel pint (it’s bonkers and very good) and the Dolly Parton release of Strawberry Pretzel (also very good!)
• Really loving the book Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk. He’s one of my favorite all time comedic voices and this book is a great insight into his journey and process. Anyone interested in comedy should pick this up
• Didn’t get to listen to much music but two albums I checked out and enjoyed are Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee and Ghost - Impera
• Got my copy of Sean Coyle’s comic book ‘Skyless’ after supporting his Kickstarter and was super impressed with it!

I guested on the following podcasts!

• The Restricted Section - one of my favorite podcasts to guest on! I think this is my 4th appearance? Please check it out!
• Escape This Pod - another of my favorites to guest on! I recently got to do a dog themed escape room with Janet Varney! This is the first escape room I’ve gotten to do with Janet so it was a literal dream come true! Give it a listen!!

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

Love and Don’t Die

Adal

7:17pm