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I really love strange stories that mix comedy, horror, weirdness, and hopefully something relatable. I love that intersection between pulp/genre/b-movie adventure and ancient myths. Old stories that get passed down and reinvented as different generations try to figure out who they are and who they want to be. So here's a story working through some of the weird horror and comedy of right now. I hope you enjoy this modern myth called…THE LISTENER!
It was a strange time. A plague swirled through the land. So for a while everyone lived mostly in their homes–determined, stressed, and pantsless.
They interacted through computers. Their fingers shouting opinions into the keyboard. Smiling into computer cameras for business meetings, movie watchalongs, funerals, and extra awkward first dates.
Everyone lived life torso and up.
One night, a woman named Doris was chatting with her torso friends through her computer. It was fun. She had a cocktail and everything. Two hours earlier, she'd been sitting in the exact same spot, staring into the exact same camera, wearing a business casual dress shirt, assuring her boss the revisions would be done by tomorrow.
It was good to catch up with her torso friends. But she was tired. Tired of everyone talking at the same time, then everyone pausing so they didn't interrupt again. Tired of deciding whether to look into her friends' eyes or the camera's.
The party ended. One by one her torso friends disappeared. And once again Doris felt drunk on a strange cocktail of bliss and shame.
She sighed and walked away. But this night, she forgot to turn off her camera. The glow of the computer stared into her empty living room.
Doris climbed into bed, picked up her phone, and stared at that smaller glowing box instead. She read a long article about not reading things on your phone in bed. She laughed herself into a fitful sleep.
Doris did not see what happened next. The glow of the computer pulsed and quaked. Slowly and silently, the light poured out of the screen. It forked out in thick, quivering bolts. The bolts formed into the shape of a human hand. It clawed at the air, pulling itself out of the computer.
The next morning, Doris woke up and shuffle-stumbled into the living room and directly toward the coffee maker. Something flickered and caught her eye. She looked over her shoulder and noticed the pulsing blue human shape sitting on her couch.
She looked back at the coffeemaker.
Then she looked back at the blue thing on her couch and she screamed and screamed.
She picked up her least favorite coffee mug and whirled it across the room at the figure. The mug flew directly into the shimmering thing's featureless blue face.
The mug didn't hit the face. It didn't hit the wall behind the face. It was just gone. Gone inside the blue thing on her couch.
Before Doris could decide what else to throw, the blue thing moved. It stood on two legs. Its arms jangled at its side. Its body had no real definition. No gender, no body type. The edges of it kept soundlessly dancing and sparking. It shifted ever so slightly in height and width all the time.
It calmly walked toward her, limbs pulsing away. Doris decided screaming again seemed like a sensible way to process this. She screamed directly at the thing but her screams seemed to fly into the thing's face and disappear just like her least favorite coffee mug.
Finally, the pulsing blue thing stopped right beside her. It slowly turned its head toward the coffeemaker and stared. It didn't have eyes, but the coffeemaker is where the eyes would be looking, Doris guessed.
She reached out to touch the thing. She knew it was stupid. She braced herself for impact. For heat, for pain, for her fingers to turn into long columns of ash like an old cartoon character's cigarette and fall to the floor in a pathetic heap.
But nothing. She saw her fingers enter the pulsing blue torso of the thing, but she felt nothing. Not even numb. She just felt the same old stale air of her apartment. That was almost worse.
She pulled her hand out and stared at the thing's face. It turned its face up and looked back. Even without eyes, she knew. Doris knew it was looking right at her.
It was extremely awkward.
Doris decided she needed coffee to figure out what to do next. Almost in a trance, she went through the insufferably familiar motions of opening the grounds, putting in the filter, and…and the thing just watched. It stared at every dumb little thing she was doing like it was the most important thing in the world.
So Doris went through her day. She made her coffee. She drank it and watched the news on TV. It sat on the couch with her. It seemed to have no preference between cable news or the local news.
Doris desperately had to use the bathroom but she was afraid to discover the boundaries of the blue thing. She leapt into the bathroom and slammed the door shut, but the blue thing sauntered straight through the door.
It stared at her as she brushed her teeth, fixed her hair, and finally, dammit, even as she used the toilet. It kept staring directly at her face. It was almost as if it was waiting for her to say something.
"Have you ever heard of privacy?" she shouted. The words disappeared into the thing.
No. It wasn't that they disappeared. It was more like the words were…absorbed.
It heard her. It just had no response.
She finished her bathroom routine, including an extra thorough hand washing. She didn't want this thing thinking she didn't wash her hands for the full length of the Happy Birthday song. Screw it, she decided, and sang the Happy Birthday song at it.
It appeared to hear that, too.
Doris had a little time before her first meeting on her computer that day. She went to the bedroom and got dressed. It followed. She picked out a business casual blouse and the same sweat pants she'd been wearing for a week. After she got dressed, she sat on the edge of her bed. It sat down next to her. Staring and pulsing.
The answer came to Doris. This must be happening to everyone. Some group delusion. Some side effect of the plague.
She decided she'd do what she always did with any important thought: Put it on the internet.
Doris picked up her phone. Her fingers flew across the digital keyboard. She knew exactly the tone to strike. She would declare the truth, but she would couch it in a post-modern, self-aware veneer of comedy to distance herself from her own statement just in case anyone disagreed.
She typed out the perfect post. It read: "Got one of those weird pulsing light people in my apartment! Everyone's got one of those right? Not just plague mind fatigue, right? YOU'RE THE WEIRDO IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE! Ha ha!!
"Good," Doris thought, "this is good."
But a photo would make it perfect. She opened the camera app. She could see the thing pulsing away. She snapped a photo.
She looked at the photo. The thing did not appear in the photo.
"Fine," Doris said out loud to both no one and the thing. "It will be just as funny if I attach a picture where there's clearly nothing there."
Doris attached the photo, hit send, and waited. A few likes trickled in. A couple of joking comments. A couple of obnoxious and unasked for opinions about the décor of her bedroom and the composition of the photo.
"Dammit," she said to the thing. "Why do people need to find some damn little thing to criticize about every dumb post?!"
She waited and waited. She scrolled and she scrolled. But she saw nothing that made her think anyone else had a pulsing new light friend.
She sighed and looked at the blue thing. "I've got to go to work. I have a business meeting with someone named Ted. Ted is an asshole who I swear to god, adjusts his camera from a downward angle because he WANTS us to see up his damn nostrils."
Doris talked and the blue thing listened as they walked to her computer. She sat down. The blue thing stood by her side. She stared into the camera. It was immediately clear no one could see her pulsing blue light friend. And so Doris went through her day, torso and up.
That night as she got ready for bed, chatting at the blue thing about the bars she missed going to the most, she suddenly realized the blue thing no longer terrified her. It was…nice. Nice to have someone who just wanted to listen.
She climbed into bed and waited to see where it would go. It sat itself gently on the end of bed, looking down at her like some kind of glowing guardian angel.
It was the most peaceful night's sleep Doris had in months.
The next day, Doris tested a theory. She ordered pizza for delivery. As the masked delivery guy walked toward her apartment, she stepped fully out into the hallway. The blue thing stepped out with her. Doris kept her eyes locked on the pizza guy. He had no reaction. She looked over at the blue thing. The pizza guy stared quizzically, unsure what Doris was looking at. Doris just smiled and took her pizza and her blue thing back into the apartment.
The days turned to weeks and the weeks turned into months. Some days, Doris' throat hurt from talking this much. She told it jokes. She told it secrets. She downloaded a karaoke game to her PlayStation and she sang it some hits of the 90s. She shifted keys inappropriately seven times during her performance of "Zombie" by The Cranberries.
Her blue friend did not care. Her blue friend just listened. No criticisms. No comments. No awkward, selfish attempts to make the conversation all about it.
No matter what she threw at her blue friend, they absorbed it.
Sometimes, it even seemed like they really liked what Doris said. The way their energy pulsed or quaked looked like they were laughing or nodding or leaning forward for more. Doris was sure of it. It wasn't just random fluctuations. They really appreciated her.
Doris felt very lucky.
Then one day, things changed again. She was standing at the window of her apartment. Her blue friend by her side. She was pointing at a cloud and asking her friend if they also thought that one looked like a duck riding a motorcycle.
Then she heard it. Coming from the apartment in the building across the street. The one she could see right into most days.
A loud bellowing scream from the guy who lived there and did crossfit shirtless in his living room every day. He was staring at something Doris couldn't see. His screams started strong and then melted away into a whisper.
Doris had no doubt. Shirtless guy just got a blue friend, too.
There were more screams every day. Doris wasn't mad that other people were getting blue friends. She was happy for them.
She started posting more on social media. Telling people about the coffee mug she threw into her friend that first day. She got a lot of likes. People responded, "OMG! I threw my coffee mug into my blue friend on the first day, too!"
Others replied, "Holy crap! I didn't know you could throw things in them! Best recycling plan ever!"
Still others responded, "Wait! Wait! Yours is blue? Mine is red!"
Apparently, they came in all colors. Red, blue, green, purple, orange. A visual art friend of Doris' swore up and down their friend was EXACTLY the acrylic paint color, Burnt Umber.
Soon, talk of the shimmering pulsing mystery figures was everywhere. Late night talk show hosts had theirs on as guests. No one could see them or hear them, but the hosts had a good time talking to them.
The next time the pizza delivery guy came to Doris' apartment, he asked, "What color is yours?"
"Blue, but a real—"
"That's great!" the Pizza Guy interrupted. "Mine is EMERALD. Not green, but like, emerald. Because people don't understand, there is technically a diff—"
Doris nodded, took her pizza, and her blue friend inside.
She didn't need to be interrupted ever again. She had a listener. The whole world did. Everyone had a Listener.
Time passed. It was hard to tell how much. People didn't really do awkward computer calls anymore. No one was really going to work. A few texts here and there. People still posted on social media but only to talk about how great their Listener was. No one really bothered to respond. If they had a strong opinion they wanted to share, they could throw it at their Listener.
Soon, Doris had no contact with anyone but her Listener. Their name was now Quakey. Quakey, the Listener. Doris was sure Quakey liked the name.
Things started to change even more. Sometimes it was scary, but Doris could handle it because she could pour all her thoughts and fears into Quakey.
Sometimes, during Karaoke, the power would go out. The third time it happened, Doris decided to check social media to see if other people were experiencing an outage. No one had updated their profiles in a week.
Doris sat in the darkness. She didn't even need candles. Quakey's pulsing body gave off plenty of light. She read an old book by the light of her friend. She read him passages she liked. Quakey might have nodded in appreciation.
The days wore on. Doris stared out of the window. She didn't see her neighbor in his apartment. She didn't see anyone out on the streets.
"That's weird," Doris said into Quakey. Then she saw movement. In the apartment across the street.
Topless guy screamed at the empty air where Doris knew his Listener was. "Something! Anything!" he screamed. "I can't take it! I can't take it anymore!"
He picked up a dumbbell and threw it. It disappeared into thin air. Topless guy stared. He backed up to get a running start.
He threw himself toward his listener. And he disappeared.
Doris stumbled back in shock. That…that had never occurred to her. She turned to Quakey.
"What exactly happens when you absorb things? Where did my neighbor go? Is he gone? Is he dead?"
Doris clenched her fists and stared hard at Quakey, analyzing every pulse and gyration of their dancing body for meaning. But Doris heard nothing.
Her relationship with Quakey soured quickly. They still followed her everywhere. They still stared. But what had felt warm and reassuring now felt cold and distant.
Quakey's constant, maddening silence became a low, irritating electric buzz. It grew into an endless piercing scream.
Doris couldn't take it anymore. Plague be damned, she marched out of her apartment and down into the streets. She and Quakey encountered a few people. Windows were shattered and stores were abandoned. Cars were stopped in the middle of the street. Drivers screaming at the empty space in the passengers' seat.
Doris shouted at the other humans, waved them down. But they were all distracted. They shouted at their Listeners. Others wept. Others threw everything they could find into their Listeners.
Doris pleaded with them, begging them to talk to her. "We need to figure out what's happening! Where do people go? How does this end? How did this happen? What should we do?"
But no one listened. Most ignored her. A few others shouted her down, raving about their own Listener.
By the time Doris had seen three people throw themselves into their Listeners, she couldn't take anymore.
Dejected, she marched home with Quakey in pulsating lockstep.
That night, she became determined. She could do this. She could get a reaction. A real, tangible reaction.
She sat down on the couch and stared into Quakey's throbbing blue face. She asked calmly and politely for Quakey to say something back to her. She pleaded and cajoled. She threatened and bellowed. She made every noise she could think of.
Doris thought of every outrageous offensive opinion she could. Her most controversial movie rankings. Disgusting pizza toppings. Outrageous revisionist history of her own relationship with Quakey. She raged that blue was the stupidest color ever to appear in a spectrum.
She screamed and screamed until she couldn't even tell if she was making sound anymore.
"Please, please," she croaked. "Say anything, do anything, BE anything."
But the Listener did nothing but listen.
Doris fell silent. She slumped back on her couch, next to the blue thing.
She stayed there for a long time, listening to the endless scream of their mutual silence. And she hoped that someday, there would be something more to hear.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this post, you can find me on Twitter or check out my Patreon here!
Tagged as 2020, Comedy, funny, Horror, Humor, lockdown, myths, Social Media, Twitter
I have a great time celebrating and discussing Star Wars on the podcast I co-host, ForceCenter. As a fun exercise, we tried to imagine the opening crawl for EPISODE IX if it foolishly tried to recap the previous eight films. Here's the crawl I wrote. I love Star Wars very much for its bizarre and delightful mixture of pulp adventure and character-driven philosophical morality tale. This was a fun way to celebrate!
The galaxy was at peace. For a thousand generations, the JEDI KNIGHTS were the guardians of justice and balance in the REPUBLIC. But even under the strong leadership of the ancient master YODA, the Jedi worried corruption and darkness could destroy all they had built.
New hope arrived when the Jedi discovered a young boy named ANAKIN SKYWALKER, the chosen one whispered of in prophecy. Believing he could return balance to the force by destroying the dark side warriors known as the SITH, Anakin was trained by the noble Jedi Knight, OBI-WAN KENOBI.
Little did the Jedi realize, the Republic was controlled by the Sith Lord, DARTH SIDIOUS. Masquerading as a politician named SHEEV PALPATINE, he orchestrated a massive political conflict and the CLONE WARS erupted, plunging the galaxy into chaos.
Defying the code of the Jedi Order, Anakin fell in love with the brave and wise Senator, PADME AMIDALA. Sidious manipulated Anakin's fear of losing Padme and convinced him to betray the Jedi. Consumed by the dark side, Anakin became DARTH VADER, the terrifying enforcer of Palpatine's new EMPIRE. With the Republic destroyed and the Jedi Order abolished, darkness fell.
Yet there was still hope. Before her tragic death, Padme gave birth to twins, LUKE SKYWALKER and LEIA ORGANA. Obi-Wan and Yoda watched over them, until the time was right.
Years later, a REBELLION led by Leia Organa brought the young freedom fighter face to face with her long lost brother, Luke. Together with unlikely heroes the scoundrel HAN SOLO and his loyal Wookiee friend, CHEWBACCA, the Skywalker Twins defied the tyranny of the Empire, launching the Galactic Civil War.
Under the guidance of Obi-Wan and Yoda, Luke trained to become a Jedi like his father. Soon fate demanded Luke face the truth that Anakin had become the dark lord Darth Vader.
Preying on Luke's compassion for his friends, Sidious drew the young Jedi into a trap and sought to turn him to the dark side. In a desperate attempt to keep his sister Leia from the clutches of the Sith, Luke called upon the dark side to defeat his father in a fateful duel.
Before Luke could strike the killing blow, he realized the folly of vengeance and threw down his weapon. The act of mercy awakened the hero Anakin Skywalker. Selflessly, Anakin gave his life to save his son, destroying the Sith and fulfilling the prophecy.
For many years, there was balance. Luke, now a Jedi Master, trained his nephew BEN SOLO, son of Leia and galactic hero Han Solo, in the ways of the force. But haunted by fear of his family's complicated legacy and his own place within it, Ben fell to the dark side and became KYLO REN.
Soon he led the re-emergent Empire known as the FIRST ORDER in a brutal attack on the NEW REPUBLIC. Opposed only by a small band of fighters known as the RESISTANCE, once again led by Leia Organa, the galaxy plunged back into war.
Still the light side of the Force persisted, awakening powerful abilities within a mysterious young scavenger named REY. Soon, destiny led Rey to clash with Kylo Ren and witness him kill his father, Han Solo.
Armed with the Skywalker family LIGHTSABER, she sought out Luke Skywalker for guidance. But to their mutual surprise, Rey and Kylo found themselves drawn together, both hoping to turn the other to their side of the force.
Despite her empathy for Ben Solo's fear and loneliness, Rey resisted. Inspired by the heroism of his young pupil, Luke Skywalker gave his life to save his sister and the Resistance from certain destruction.
Now, young REY and her friends, former Stormtrooper FINN and daring pilot POE DAMERON, race to save the galaxy from the legacy of terror dominating Kylo Ren's soul and restore peace and justice to the galaxy…
A lot of people say they love Halloween because it's fun to be scared. And to me that is bullshit.
I don't need a special time of the year to be scared. Here's a list of non-Halloween times where I am scared:
Any day when I read the news.
When my DVR doesn't record Supergirl.
When someone wants to describe something funny they did in an improv scene in great detail.
When someone says "How are you?" and I get nervous and respond "You too."
Every month that is not October
and also the month of October.
The point is being scared is not rare. I love Halloween because I think it's an opportunity to reflect on why we're scared. Why do certain things fill our souls with dread?
I had a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the nature of terror earlier this month when I went to Target and browsed their Halloween section.
They have lots of legitimately spooky stuff. They've got skeletons and spider webs and a Kylo Ren costume made for children. Father should be very concerned if your child wants to dress up as Kylo Ren for Halloween. Nothing like a little patricide to bring a family together.
That said, I do like the idea of a little kid dressed as Kylo Ren going door to door on Halloween night and instead of saying "Trick or Treat" he just holds out his bag and yells "MORE! MORE!"
Anyway, lots of legitimately spooky stuff at Target but what scared me the most is this. Amidst all their spooky props of tombstones and zombie hands bursting from the earth, Target has a collection of terrifying items that can only be described as ANALOG TECHNOLOGY.
They have an oldie-time microphone. Like old crooners would use. Like Ella Fitzgerald might have used when she sang with Chick Webb in the 1930s. Spooky big band vocals!
They have an oldie-time movie camera that uses actual film. You know like the kind of camera used to film such bone-chilling classics as 1987's Harry and The Hendersons. The terror, the terror!
And perhaps the scariest of all, a rotary phone. Yes, that's right. A phone so old it does not even have buttons to press. You have to stick your finger in little holes and rotate them multiple times to place a call to someone WHO MIGHT NOT EVEN BE HOME.
TERRIFYING. What other slightly outdated technology will be frightening us next?
There's that old horror movie tagline "When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth." That will now be changed to the much more frightening "When there is no more room in the landfill, the AOL discs will walk the earth."
In the very near future, people will attempt to terrify trick or treaters by covering their lawns in Keurig coffeemakers. The pods, the pods! So wasteful!
Anyway, this visit to Target really drove home the point that one of the major things that scares us is just OLD SHIT. And I get it. The older something is the more likely that it has history. That it has baggage.
It's easy to look at a rotary phone, this creaky broken down mechanical old thing, and wonder—who used this? What trauma were they going through? Could the tormented spirit of someone who had a slightly sore finger from all that manually dialing still be here? Could this old rotary phone be haunted by their very soul?
I get it. It's easy to imagine a spirit lurking in a rotary phone because it's old. And yet that's kind of hypocritical bullshit. Because there is literally a lady who talks to me in my iPhone.
I never ask to talk to her but if say any combination of syllables that sounds vaguely like SIRI, she's all like "Yes, Joseph, what do you need, Joseph? Would you like to know what time it is in Albania? Should I google the War of 1812? Where is Emily's house? Who is near me?"
Those are all ACTUAL questions Siri has asked me to ask her. I don't even know any contacts named Emily.
I get that we're scared of old things because they intrinsically remind us of our own mortality. I understand that when you hear the scream of a fax machine there's a part of your brain that just says, "Oh yeah. I am going to die and there's nothing I can do about it. Thanks for the reminder, FAX MACHINE."
I get it. But I feel like we're being too hard on old stuff. I feel like if I was ever going to be attacked by a phone, I would absolutely be murdered by SIRI. Then she'd buy an old rotary phone, wrap the cord around my neck, and when the cops show up, she'd just be like—"THE OLD PHONE DID IT."
And the dumb cops would be like, "Yep. That checks out."
I think that we, as a culture, should tell more horror stories about modern things.
I love haunted castles and old abandoned amusement parks as much as the next person, but where are all the haunted Blockbuster Video stories?
Tell me the terrifying tale of Toby, the assistant manager, whose spirit cannot rest until that double disc DVD of Titanic is finally returned.
Tell me the chilling tale of the Borders Bookstore that got shut down in 2010, killed by Amazon, and now its corpse is being reanimated as an Amazon bookstore. I mean that is some cold shit to kill you and then take over your corpse.
I like old cathode ray tube televisions that are possessed by someone who died in a well in 1928. That's fun. But give me a PS4 that's haunted by the ghost of someone who didn't go outside very often. And the PS4 just keeps turning itself off and moaning, "FOR FUCK SAKE, GET A LIFE." That's scary as hell.
There are great modern horror stories happening all around us right this very moment. Just a few months go Toys R Us—one of the happiest places on Earth—died. They had to close all their stores because they went bankrupt.
But as it turns out, they didn't die. They were murdered by the greedy idiots who dumped a bunch of their own corporate debt on the company. Seriously, Toys R Us was murdered by a bunch of assholes in beige business suits.
But that's not the end of the story. To paraphrase H.P. Lovecraft's poem about the great God Cthulhu:
That which is dead can eternal lie
And with strange aeons
Even Geoffery may RISE.
That's right. The owners of Toys R Us want to keep the brand alive so they have resurrected Geoffrey the Giraffe.
This is their big move to regain the trust of children everywhere—A ZOMBIE GIRAFFE.
Undead Geoffrey made his first appearance at a Dallas Toy Show wearing a bright red cape, not unlike Dracula. His cape had this haunting phrase scrawled on it: BACK FROM VACTION.
Vacation? You fuckers murdered him.
Still, I'm happy that Geoffrey is back from the dead. I want every Toys R Us store back. And I want them to lean-in to Zombie Geoffrey.
I want to see that Giraffe shambling through the store, arms outstretched, saying, "TRAINS! TRAINS! Video Games! Biggest toy store there is! Want to be Toys R Us Kid!"
Yes, it would be a little scary, but also pretty awesome. It is a Zombie Giraffe whose relentless desire is not death. Geoffrey's relentless desire is to share JOY.
Because it's not Geoffrey's fault he was sent "on vacation from life." It's not the rotary phone's fault it's out of date. It's not the movie camera's fault that everything is digital now.
We have a choice about what scares us. And for me it's not old dead things. It's the living breathing terror in our midst. It's shambling greedy assholes in beige business suits.
And also when my DVR doesn't record Supergirl.
Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween and that not one of you is murdered by a rotary phone.
If you enjoyed this post, you can check out my comedy albums on bandcamp here!
I'm deeply concerned about the direction of our country.
Day by day we see issues, decisions, policies come up and it feels like we have no power to impact them. But we do. It's not fast, it's not direct, but we make a difference by voting. In particular, we have a chance to make a difference on November 6th and the build up to those mid-term elections. One of the key things we can do is change the composition of the Senate.
I couldn't find a clear, direct list of close Senate races so I put one together myself. I make no claim to be a political expert. I pulled this list of close/important races from a complex Wikipedia article about 2018 Senate races. I wanted to make a simple direct list because I know we're busy and it's hard to find the signal in the noise.
I don't think the Democrats are perfect, but I think they have far superior policies and beliefs to Republicans. And even when they drag their feet to be as progressive as I would like, I feel it is much easier for us to put pressure on them then to change the mind of a lockstep Republican.
If you live in any of these states, I encourage you to research, support, and/or donate to Democratic candidates.
Martha McSally ( R )
Kyrsten Sinema (D )
Link to donate/support/research to Dem candidate!
Rick Scott ( R )
Bill Nelson ( D )
Link to donate/support/research Dem candidate!
NEVADA:
Dean Heller ( R )
Jacky Rosen ( D )
Ted Cruz ( R )
Beto O'Rourke (D )
MISSISSIPPI:
The Mississippi Special Election is a little more complex, you can get info here!
Marsha Blackburn ( R )
Phil Bredesen ( D )
INDIANA:
Mike Braun ( R )
Joe Donnelly ( D )
MISSOURI:
Josh Hawley ( R )
Claire McCaskill ( D )
MONTANA:
Matt Rosendale ( R )
Jon Tester ( D )
NORTH DAKOTA:
Kevin Cramer ( R )
Heidi Heitkamp ( D )
Votingly,
Joseph "I Will Vote" Scrimshaw
Poe Dameron Greets The New Year
I have two simple resolutions for 2018.
The first is to find a better way to greet other humans.
"How are you?" is obviously flawed. At this point in our shared human reality, "How are you?" is a question that should only be asked by a professional therapist at the beginning of a four hour long counseling session.
So I'm playing with these alternatives:
"Hello, I'm aware of everything going on in your life because you posted it on Instagram. Are there any interesting stories behind that photo of you eating ice cream at sunset?"
And it always has to be that whole thing. Even if the person hasn't posted a photo of themselves eating ice cream at sunset. In fact, it might be a more interesting conversation if they haven't.
Another option is greeting people by saying:
"Hello, could you please tell me one good thing that is happening in your life, because while I comprehend there are also bad things, I cannot cope with them at this time. I apologize for my emotional weakness."
That's honest but a little bit of a bummer, so the final option I'm playing with is just changing "Hello. How are you?" to the nice, simple:
"Hello. How am I?"
"I mean, you've seen my Instagram photos. How am I doing? Am I okay?"
That might put a little too much pressure on the other person, but we would probably learn a lot about ourselves.
So new greetings are resolution number one.
My other resolution is to just find JOY wherever I can.
One of the things that has brought me joy, for almost my entire life, is a very odd thing: Star Wars action figures. Little pieces of plastic molded to look vaguely like some actors in a thrilling space fantasy series about wizards cutting people's arms off with laser swords.
But every time there's a new Star Wars movie, some very original person on the internet comes along and makes the bold declaration that "the new Star Wars movie is just a big toy commercial."
To which, the answer is, sure, yes, and that's fine. New Star Wars movies and their toys are meant to make money. They are not some vicious capitalist attack on that charitable non-profit George Lucas set up in 1977.
They have always been movies designed to make money and one of the ways they make money is toys. But the only reason people buy the toys is because they are inspired by the story. Or you know the art.
So if you want to make the "it's just to sell toys argument", I kindly invite you to go to the Louvre museum in Paris and tell it to the Mona Lisa bobbleheads. Great art inspires commerce.
I plan to yell all of that at anyone who gives me a side-eye when I buy eight Porg pillows at Target tomorrow.
And yes the Porgs are cute, but I don't need cute to buy Star Wars action figures. I once bought two Bacta Tank Luke Skywalker action figures. This is an action figure of Luke Skywalker from the Empire Strikes Back when he is floating in a big vat of transparent fluid. This action figure is basically Mark Hamill in a diaper and I bought TWO of them.
Star Wars does not NEED cute to sell me action figures, dammit.
Anyway, back to JOY.
Around the same time this fall, two major news stories broke. One was about escalating tensions with North Korea raising the possibility of total nuclear annihilation and the other was that Toys R' Us was declaring bankruptcy.
My immediate emotional reaction to both of those things was: "I could have done more to stop this."
So the next day I went to Toys R' Us. And I picked out a Toys R' Us exclusive action figure of Poe Dameron, the dashing starpilot played by Oscar Isaac.
Now I enjoy the character of Poe Dameron very much. He has his flaws, but he is always positive and supportive and greets almost everyone by saying, "Hey, buddy! You're doing great!" which might be how I start greeting people in 2018.
But I don't have many Poe Dameron action figures for one simple reason: They repeatedly fail to capture the aesthetic glory that is Oscar Isaac's face.
Almost every Poe Dameron action figure looks like it was sculpted out of butter and left out in the sun.
They look like Poe Dameron's bitter twin brother who wants revenge after his botched plastic surgery.
But, still, I wanted to help Toys R' Us so I picked out a pretty good Poe Dameron. This one looked like it was sculpted by the woman in Spain who tried to fix the fresco of Jesus and accidentally painted a monkey face. It was beautiful in its intentions.
So I took my Monkey Face Poe to the cash register. A 17 year old kid dragged my Poe across the scanner. And then something strange happened. The kid looked me in the eyes and said something I've never had anyone say to me in decades of buying action figures. The kid said, "Would you like to pay $2.99 extra for a warranty?"
Suddenly, I was not a young-at-heart person buying a fun toy, I was a jaded old consumer and I found myself saying, "Uhh, a warranty for what?"
And the 17 old kid said, "I don't know. I guess in case it doesn't work?"
My mind raced. How can an action figure not work?
I'm not even going to take it out of the package.
Was my Poe Dameron not going to give me uplifting speeches? Was it going to disobey Vice Admiral Holdo? How could an action figure of weird Poe Dameron FAIL ME?
The kid brought me out of my pondering by saying, "Look, my checkout screen is just telling me to ask if you want a warranty. I guess we offer them on all Toys R' Us Exclusives."
I snapped back to reality and realized the kid was not the weird one in this situation. He was doing his job. I was the fully grown adult grumbling about getting nickeled and dimed on my Poe Dameron action figure.
So I smiled and said no thanks and walked away. I walked away, LIKE AN IDIOT.
As soon as I got out into the parking lot, I realized the truth. I know why I buy action figures. I don't play with them like I did when I was a kid. I put them up around my apartment and as I walk past them, without even realizing it, I think about the character, I think about the story, I think about all the birthdays and holidays that were made better because someone I love gave me an action figure.
In other words, every time I walk past them I feel a tiny but profound burst of joy.
Toys R' Us had basically offered me a warranty on JOY.
And I had said NO.
How amazing would that be if I could call up Toy R' Us and say, "Yeah, today I walked past my action figure of weird Poe Dameron and I did not feel a burst of joy, but I do have a $3 warranty for JOY. Please send me some replacement joy IMMEDIATELY."
It was a good reminder to me to be open, to be friendly, and to find joy any place you can.
So I'm going to try to spend every day in 2018 by getting up, walking past weird Poe Dameron and imagining him saying to me, "Hey Buddy, you're doing great!"
Thanks, weird Poe.
Thanks for reading. If you'd like to support my work, you can check out Patreon here or the Star Wars podcast I co-host ForceCenter.
August 12, 2017 · 12:54 pm
An Obvious Thing That Needs To Be Said
There are Nazis walking the streets of America wearing the hat and slogan of the President of the United States. Make America Great Again.
The President and various pundits are trying to diffuse or distract from this by saying, "Well, there are strong opinions on both sides. ALL violence is wrong. I thought liberals were open minded and inclusive."
I believe in keeping an open mind and listening. I try my best (and often fail) to do that, but I try.
But, to me, the point of listening to someone else's perspective is to truly understand what they believe and what they want.
We've heard what White Supremacists and Nazis want. They want to believe they are superior.
They want to believe they have a right to subjugate people who are different. They mistakenly perceive that equality for all will somehow hurt them and rob them of their identity.
I listened, I understood, and now I disagree and say no. There's nothing in the Nazi viewpoint that I can meet halfway.
I believe in free speech. Nazis can say what they want. And then we get to respond. Freedom of speech is not freedom of consequence.
It feels very odd to me to post things like this because saying NAZIS ARE BAD AND I DISAGREE WITH THEM seems like saying "the sky is blue" or "A lot of people like Star Wars." It should just be a given.
But we're at a point in our history, that it's not. There are plenty of people who quietly hold these beliefs. So I think it's important to loudly, repeatedly condemn the beliefs of Nazis and White Supremacists.
I think it's important to not give them any rhetorical wiggle room. If you march down a public street holding a Nazi flag or NEXT to someone who is holding a Nazi flag, you are unambiguously declaring your ideology. If you defend that ideology as just another perspective or even "economic anxiety," you are siding with White Supremacy.
And I believe Nazi ideology has not, does not, and will never "make America great."
Anyway, tl; dr: NAZIS ARE BAD. PRESIDENTS WHO WON'T SAY NAZIS ARE BAD ARE BAD. WE NEED TO KEEP SAYING IT.
The Politics of Shutting Up
This is a post about politics. I hope it's calm and rational.
After the horrific shooting(s), many politicians and pundits kept saying they hoped this would help people on social media tone down the rhetoric. I'm all for stating your opinion with clarity, calmness, and understanding. Sometimes, as a comedian, I want to punch harder to make my point, but I try to state my perspective and opinion clearly and respectfully, in general.
That said, all the statements about toning down the partisan attacks really bother me. People kept saying things along the lines of we should all be in this together instead of attacking people over policy differences. And we need to remember we're all humans and not get so heated over politics. Those are great sentiments, but to me, there is something dark lurking under them.
I feel this is a way of silencing people with legitimate concerns and beliefs and getting them to go along with the status quo.
Politics and policies are not some outside thing to being a human. They should not be a taboo topic to bring up at the dinner table. They're the process by which we make decisions that impact every tiny part of our lives. They represent huge differences in philosophical approaches to how humans should co-exist in a society.
Politics shouldn't be a dirty word. They shouldn't be something that gets swept under the carpet. They should be discussed regularly and with conviction. It's not always fun. I would rather talk to you about Batman than debate with you about politics. But it's necessary. It's our responsibility as part of a society.
For example, I am opposed to the GOP healthcare bill. That is not "just politics." I believe the bill will cause people I know, and someday probably myself, to choose between poverty and death. That is something I think we should talk about. When your life is actually at risk, you might get a little heated.
I understand the shooting in Virginia is awful. If the response from many politicians is that it makes some of them come together with a renewed sense of bi-partisanship, that's a great thing to come out of a horrible tragedy.
But it alarms me to see the primary reaction to this tragedy be: Citizens on social media should tone it down.
Here is a strong political opinion stated without anger or venom to any specific ideology: I would like our politicians to do something about gun violence. I'm not making a fiery argument about exactly what. I just want every politician who is concerned with the "tenor of social media" to also acknowledge America has a massive problem with gun violence. And then start discussing it. Do the actual work of politics: Exchange views, debate, compromise, write legislation. If it doesn't work, start over.
I'll do my best to keep a calm, reasonable tone and an open mind. But I won't be told to be quiet by politicians who will not admit there is an obvious problem that needs their attention.
Now I need to go write some jokes about Batman.
Two Different Ideas
I have to get back to comedy. Like, literally, I have a show to finish preparing. The world rolls on and so does my promoting.
I love comedy because a joke is smashing two disparate ideas together. For example, this is both another dumb navel-gazing blog post by a ridiculously privileged white guy AND it's me expressing my fundamental right of freedom of speech. Comedy!
But, for me, right now, this is about separating disparate ideas. Based on the election of Trump, we know that a lot of Americans feel unheard. Voting for Trump was the way they felt they could be heard.
People who are sick of elites truly believe a billionaire who refuses to pay personal taxes is the best choice. Comedy!
People who think Washington doesn't work elected a man who has no idea how Washington works. Comedy!
We could have had the most qualified candidate ever who also happens to be a woman. Instead we have the least qualified candidate ever who also happens to be a serial sexual predator. Comedy? Tragedy? Terror?
A lot of us are wrestling with how to react to Trump's victory. Should we be angry? Should we lash out? Should we take the high road and try to be understanding?
This is the best I can come up with for myself right now:
I want to be capable of holding two different ideas.
I will respect the office of the Presidency.
I will not respect the person holding that office if they continue to advocate racist, sexist, and xenophobic thoughts and actions.
I can be empathetic to people who voted for Trump.
I can not respect the idea of turning away immigrants, repealing health insurance people depend on to literally stay alive, threatening marriage equality, denying climate change, and on and on.
I can respect people who disagree with me.
I can't and won't respect some of their ideas and opinions.
I can support an honorable, peaceful transition of power.
I can't support normalizing some of the most hateful views espoused by the incoming leader.
I will try to resist hyperbole and overreaction.
I will also continue to speak up, make jokes, post on social media, and use my free speech to say no to hateful rhetoric and policies that are, without hyperbole, very similar to Hitler.
In my opinion, Trump and the current version of the Republican Party put some of the fundamental beliefs of America, including but not limited to the idea that we are all equal, in grave risk.
I will try not to give in to anger, but I will FIGHT.
Now I'm going to try to write some jokes.
Filed under Comedy Real Life, Uncategorized
Burn in Hell: A Ghostbusters Movie Review
Movies! I like them! I spend a lot of time thinking about them! Sometimes I talk to friends about them without recording it for a podcast and it seems like a WASTE. So I'm going to make an effort to post more reviews like this one of Captain America Civil War. The reviews will be broken down into SEVEN categories: My Twitter Review, Why I Saw This Movie, Big Theme, Favorite Things, Questionable Things, Favorite Lines, and What This Film Inspires Me To Do. SPOILER LEVEL: There are only mild spoilers! Let's do this!
MY TWITTER REVIEW:
Here's my spoiler free review of #Ghostbusters:
👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻🌭👍
— Joseph Scrimshaw (@JosephScrimshaw) July 16, 2016
WHY I SAW THIS MOVIE:
Like a lot of people, I'm a fan of the original Ghostbusters. I remember next to nothing about the sequel, and I really like the episode of the cartoon where they just straight-up fight CTHULHU. Or as they call the unspeakable monster, Cathulhu.
I'm also a big fan of horror comedy in general. Both horror and comedy function on tension and sudden surprise–but with the different goals of screaming or laughing. It's fun to see them mashed-up in an attempt to create the perfect audience noise of a laugh-scream. I'm also delighted by the contrast of truly terrifying malevolent creatures going up against nature's idiots: comedians.
The original Ghostbusters took the old "monsters plus idiots" formula of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein and pushed it in a new direction by making the comedy idiots pro-actively chase the monsters.
The new Ghostbusters movie felt like another step in the evolution of the genre: horrible monsters versus comedian idiots who are (gasp) LADIES!
Sadly, the monsters they faced were not just in the movie, but lurking on YouTube and Twitter and the subbiest of sub-reddits across the internet.
I was (and am) thrilled with the casting of the new movie. I think equality is important for the sake of equality, but I also think new voices and perspectives make our art and entertainment fresher and more interesting. I think breaking down gender barriers is good for everyone. I personally don't want to be defined solely by a stereotypical masculine archetype any more than I think women should be confined to specific, outdated feminine stereotypes. I don't think anyone anywhere on the gender spectrum should be limited in what roles they can play in the story of our culture. More on that below.
I genuinely enjoyed the movie as a movie. (Even though I thought there were a lot of plot issues and missed opportunities, I laughed the entire time and walked out of the theater very happy.) But I also think Ghostbusters is an important step forward culturally, artistically, and I hope, financially. If this review can sway even one person to go see the movie, it will be worth my time. Ghostbusters had a great opening weekend, but since it got locked out of China, its ultimate undebatable financial success still depends on its second and third weekends in theaters. There's a lot of distraction between Star Trek and San Diego Comic-Con and whatever the hell is happening at the Republican National Convention, but if you want to see a variety of people and voices in the theater I hope you go bust some sexists' predictions and see the movie in theaters.
BIG THEME:
I thought the movie had two strangely complimentary themes: Friendship and F**k the haters.
I enjoyed that the movie built its foundation on the bonds of friendship between the Ghostbusters. Initially, between Erin Gilbert and Abby Yates but building between all of the central characters–Jillian Holtzmann, Patty Tolan, and even big, dumb, beautiful, and beloved (by me) Kevin. The emphasis on friendship and shared experience made you care about the characters instead of just making them puzzle pieces to act out a plot or what passes for a plot in a lot of modern comedies i.e. getting diarrhea. Mostly importantly to me, it allowed a lot more of the comedy to come from character moments.
A lot of that friendship was forged by facing down haters. The haters took many forms: Bosses, the government, ghosts, pale guys, YouTube commenters, etc. Outside of a few specific and pointed lines ("ain't no bitches gonna bust no ghosts" was a great line), it felt very universal. I think the best storytelling is reaching the universal through the very specific. Most of us are not brilliant, well educated, hilarious women who fight ghosts professionally, but life is challenging for all of us. We all have days where we feel like the forward movement in our lives is blocked by a different asshole with each step. For every step, a new asshole. (It's not a saying, but it should be.) For me, the movie was an incredibly cathartic experience of seeing four very specific characters overcoming that very universal feeling.
FAVORITE THINGS:
Actual jokes:
I feel like a lot of modern comedies just point the camera at a funny person and let them make faces, weird noises, and generally improvise. It's very broad comedy because it's not grounded in the character or the moment. It's just throwing potential trailer moments at a demographic and hoping they stick. I think a huge part of Deadpool's surprise success was that it was full of specific, structured, well delivered JOKES. From the initial trailers, I was terrified that Ghostbusters would just point the camera at Melissa McCarthy and make her do "bits." Instead, there were a ton of specific thoughtful combinations of words and ideas that formed actual humor jokes based on the characters and the situations. I'm sad that that feels novel, but thrilled about how much I laughed because this comedy movie had actual jokes.
Kristen Wiig:
Kate McKinnon and her character Holtzmann deserve every syllable of praise typed or spoken and a million more. Leslie Jones and Melissa McCarthy were both great, but for my personal comedy taste, I thought Kristen Wiig was amazing. I'm a big fan of what I'll call "leading person comedy." The kind of character who is not intrinsically the zany one, but a character who does the heavy lifting on holding up the plot and the heart of the thing but still manages to be super funny. Wiig's performance might not be as memorable when you first walk out of the theater, but she walked a fine line of being vulnerable, relatable, tough, and consistently hilarious.
Chris Hemsworth:
Nowhere near as important as four women in lead comedy roles in a reboot of a beloved previously all-male man all the time men film BUT it was great to see Chris Hemsworth who is normally a great, big stud play a great, big idiot. Like I mentioned earlier, it's great to see stereotypes of all kinds played with and I want to live in a world where our biggest action heroes can also be beloved comedy idiots.
Everything at the metal concert:
I have always loved the inherent weirdness of heavy metal and this scene mocked and celebrated the weirdness of worshipping demons and being super precious about your chord progression at the same time. Also, for me, one of the most successful mash-ups of horror and comedy in the movie.
It wasn't just a movie, it was an EVENT.
I was lucky to see the movie on Friday the 15th, opening night, 8 pm in the Dome at the Arclight Theater in Hollywood with several hundred people. Granted, this is an ideal time and place to see a movie if you want to get a super excited, communal experience. There were many lines I didn't hear because there was too much laughter, there were cheers for the main characters and all the cameos of the classic actors, screams of delight in moments of the heroes' victory, there were other noises that might have been moans of sexual awakening, there were honest quiet moments where a few jokes didn't land. I think I moaned in comedy joy at Kevin's glasses. But it was more than just an audience enjoying a movie. It felt like an explosion of joy at experiencing something truly DIFFERENT. I'm thrilled that I got to have that experience and I think it makes seeing the movie in theaters rather than waiting for Blu Ray or streaming worth it.
QUESTIONABLE THINGS:
Bill Murray's role:
I was bummed by Bill Murray's role in the movie. Not really the role, but the execution. I like the idea of Bill Murray playing the pompous, establishment character who exists to shake his head disapprovingly and doubt the "inferiors" around him. It's the kind of character Bill Murray usually attacked with comedy in his younger days. So it's a neat idea that Bill Murray basically plays his own anti-archetype. But unlike most of the movie, he didn't have many jokes to work with. The character wasn't fun to hate. He just bummed me out. Which might have worked if he was used as a foil to get some great comedy out of our new heroes, but the whole scene felt flat. I think it would've been an amazing feat to use Bill Murray as the ultimate asshole and even make the audience FURIOUS but he was just a truly unlikeable character and then he was gone. All the other cameos felt like celebrations and this was literally and figuratively throwing Bill Murray out the window.
Villain's Scheme and Ghost Rules
I'm glad that the plot was new and not the very Lovecraftian summoning of a great old one from the 1984 Ghostbusters. I liked the idea that the villain was a "pale, sad one" who wanted to get power for himself but I thought that idea was underdeveloped. The movie had great moments celebrating how much our heroes value knowledge. I would've loved a scene where the heroes laid out the rules of the ghostly realm and its interaction with the mortal plane a little bit more clearly. I think that would have upped our investment in the story even more. The fact that his plan stopped and started a bit too much in the second act also undermined the huge amount of forward energy the audience seemed to feel every time our heroes had a victory.
Mysterious Editing
Without going into too many details, I felt like there were some weird choices in the editing. It felt like bits of logic were maybe left on the cutting room floor. And one big scene that seemed to have moved from the movie itself into the credits for time. It's rare that I look forward to the extended version of a movie on Blu Ray, but I think and hope there's a longer cut of the movie which flows better in the second half and doesn't skip any beats in the relationship of the awesome characters.
So those are some fairly major critiques, but they didn't really impact my enjoyment of the movie. To me, it's so successful as a comedy and as a vehicle for new voices that those thrills far outweigh some of the typical big budget summer movie and reboot problems.
FAVORITE LINES:
"Face bidet"- Garret
Why: This was the first joke-joke in the movie and I was thrilled to hear an actual joke (and a funny one) right off the bat. Also, my wife and I have both worked in historic mansions and museums over the years and this joke nailed that vibe. Talk to me about Humphrey Man-Lifts someday.
"One? Two? Is it one?" – Holtzmann
Why: I love the subversion of escalation. It's also the kind of almost Marx Brothers-esque word play you don't hear in comedies as often.
"Okay, room full of nightmares" -Patty
Why: This line is the perfect mash-up of horror and comedy. It comes from that character's voice but represents a relatable human reaction to confronting something horrific.
"Burn in hell." -Erin
Why: I loved Kristen Wiig's delivery. It felt like these weren't the words she meant to say in reaction to being quoted a monthly rent, but she couldn't stop herself from letting the sub-text become text.
"Mike Hat." -Kevin
Why: I loved Kevin's whole interview scene. All of his absurd jokes were delivered dead pan and made even funnier by the Ghostbusters reaction. It was particularly fun to see Melissa McCarthy stare at big, dumb Kevin like he's an idiot.
Holtzmann licking the weapon she designed – Holtzmann
Why: It's not a line, but it sums up a lot of her weirdness, her energy, her forward momentum. It's strange and specific and makes sense for her character. It also feels iconic. Twenty or thirty years from now when there's a reboot of this Ghostbusters movie, it's going to be the thing the new heroes do to nod to the classic 2016 Ghostbusters.
WHAT THE MOVIE INSPIRED ME TO DO:
Write more comedy and horror mash-ups myself, keep supporting different voices in art and entertainment to the best of my ability, and look into purchasing a face bidet.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoy this article, feel free to share it on the social medias. If you want to help make more articles like this possible, you can support me on Patreon.
Filed under Comedy Review, Uncategorized
Tagged as Comedy, Cthulhu, funny, Ghostbusters, Horror, Humor, Joseph Scrimshaw, Mike Hat
Stuff I Did and Stuff I'm Doing May 2016
Hello, kind humans who are reading this!
I'm trying to post the occasional update on creative stuff I've been doing and upcoming shows!
Creative stuffs I've been up to!
I'm having a lot of fun being a contributing writer for RiffTrax. Basically, I get assigned a chunk of the movie and write the jokes for that chunk. In the past few months, I worked on a short starring a pedantic talking dog called The Value of Teamwork and an obscure little indie film called The Force Awakens.
I also made a new comedy video called Adult Storytime, featuring artwork by Alex Robinson, the co-host of the great podcast Star Wars Minute. If it goes well, I might make more. You can watch it right here!
I've been doing a lot of Star Wars talking! I was thrilled to be a guest on Collider Jedi Council, a very popular YouTube show and podcast covering all things Star Wars.
My own Star Wars podcast feed that I run with Screen Junkies' producer Ken Napzok and awesome indie artist Jennifer Landa is going strong. We're putting on a minimum of two episodes a week. You can check out our latest episode involving Ewoks and fire right here!
Finally, Obsessed is continuing to grow thanks to all the listeners and the kind support of my Patreon backers! We're just wrapping up our fourth month of weekly episodes. Your support is great, Feral Audio (the podcast network Obsessed is on) has a lot of big plans, but I still want to grow the podcast more. If you enjoy an episode, please SHOUT IT TO TO THE DIGITAL ROOFTOPS! A personal tweet or post with a link to a specific episode helps us out massively! This month's topics were Your Mom, Hamilton, Snapchat, and the X-Men. You can catch up on them all here!
I've also got some exciting writing projects brewing in Hollywoodland. Hopefully, there will be more to report there soon!
This Monday, May 30th I'm doing a live recording of Obsessed podast about selfies with Angela Webber of the The Doubleclicks and Molly Lewis. Full info is here.
Then, back in LA on Friday June 3rd, it's my new monthly comedy game show with Hal Lublin called HEADCAN(N)ON! This month's guests are J. Elvis Weinstein, Allegra Ringo, Allie Goertz, and Wil Wheaton. You can get tickets here!
Stand-up in LA! I've been doing more sets here in Los Angeles. In March, I did my first set on The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail and on June 7th, I'll be on Put Your Hands Together with Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher. Tickets for that show will be available soon here!
On June 22nd, I'm visiting San Francisco for a double-bill of a new stand-up show I'm working on (called Joseph Scrimshaw Versus Reality) and another live Obsessed podcast. This one's about NETFLIX with special guests Rebecca Watson and Bonnie Burton. Sadly, you can't stream the show from your home, but you can get tickets here!
Then over the Fourth of July weekend, I'll be back home in Minnesota to be a Guest of Honor at the great convention CONvergence. They're always on top of their game so my whole schedule is already available here.
That's it for now! Thank you so much for your time and your support!
Obsessively,
Tagged as Comedy, Feral Audio, funny, Humor, Joseph Scrimshaw, OBSESSED, podcast, RiffTrax, Star Wars
Comedy Twoots
Scrimshaw Links
Joseph's Patreon Page
Joseph's Wikipedia Page
Star Wars as Tweets
Collaborators and Awesome People
Birdchick aka Sharon Stiteler
Blind Ferret
Christopher Jones
Craig VanDerSchaegen
Dammit Liz
Drinking With Geeks podcast
Fearless Comedy
Geek-A-Week
Joel Watson
John Kovalic and Dork Tower
Ken Plume
Marian Call
Mike Phirman
Molly Lewis
Rockstar Storytellers
Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw
Stepto
The Doubleclicks
Search for the things!


It is the mission of the Department of Public Safety to make every effort to provide a safe and secure environment for each student, employee, and guest of Centre College. They strive to treat all persons equally with courtesy, consideration, and dignity.
Julie Wheeler joined Centre's staff in 2014 as a DPS officer.
Before coming to Centre, Julie served as a paramedic and emergency services manager in central Kentucky and abroad. She also worked as a substitute teacher and instructional assistant for Danville Independent Schools.
Julie received a B.S. in psychology from Eastern Kentucky University.
It is the department's responsibility to make every reasonable effort to provide a safe living and learning environment for our students, faculty and staff. Their efforts are not limited to criminal activities but include any matter involving the personal safety of someone in the Centre College community. In addition, the department ensures that the college is in compliance with safety and security related federal, state, and local laws.
Public Safety personnel do not have arrest powers. Their authority is established and defined by the administrative officers of the College. The department also performs an academic service and support role, since observance of policies, rules, and regulations is part of an overall educational experience.
The department maintains a staff of two directors and seven full-time public safety officers. The officers monitor the campus, respond to calls for assistance, and are trained in fire safety. There is at least one officer on duty at all times.
The DPS office is located in Walnut House.
Call ext. "HELP" (4357) on the campus telephone system or 859.236.4357 from all other telephones.
For confirmed emergency situations that require the immediate assistance of police, fire, or EMS, the Danville Public Safety Department can be reached by calling 9-911.


text:
Q: How to set up an Azure DevOps pipeline with texlive? I have a repo with LaTeX .tex files. In every commit I would like a pipeline to create PDF with them.
I have created a pipeline with the pdflatex main.tex command.
However, texlive is not installed in the vm. So I get the error:
/home/.../f170215a.sh: line 2: pdflatex: command not found
How to go around that? Are there options of cloud based VMs in Azure with texlive installed? Or do I have to create my own VM for that?
The pipeline yaml is as follows:
trigger:
- master
pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
steps:
- bash: |
    echo Starting pdflatex
    pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex
    echo Done pdflatex.

A: First part solved by installing the requirements in the pipeline script:
sudo apt-get install texlive

The yml pipeline looks like this:
trigger:
- master
pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
steps:
- bash: |
    sudo apt-get install texlive
    echo Starting pdflatex
    pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex
    echo Done pdflatex.

Now I just need to retrieve the pdf file. But that's another topic =)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Can a Newbie Author Pull Off Such an Ambitious Plot? Well, No, Not Really.
School and 17-year-old Tyler MacCandless don't get along very well. It's not that he doesn't try. He does. And it's not that he isn't smart enough. He is. It's just that his ADHD makes it difficult to sit still, impossible to concentrate. It's a whole lot easier to pretend he doesn't care. Blowing off class to spend quality time with his game console is more to Tyler's liking anyway. And, if he does it well, it might even lead to a real job. That's what Rick Anderson, an Air Force vet who's become Tyler's mentor and father figure, says. He's given Tyler an amazing new game to test—if Tyler can reach a high enough score, he can earn his way into flight school. At the very least, the game keeps his mind off his other problems: failing grades, his workaholic mother, and an older brother who's in rehab trying to get clean.
Ani Bagdorian is a brilliant, 16-year-old computer programmer from L.A. A freshman at Yale, she's feeling just a little out of place. At least her secret job designing software for a mysterious company called Haranco pays for most of her tuition. Even if the whole situation makes her feel a little uneasy. Still, she doesn't dare quit, not if she wants to keep herself out of jail.
When Tyler and Ani meet, the two are instantly attracted to each other. Not that they're allowed to have any kind of relationship. Haranco won't allow it. But the more the two learn about the dangerous game they're both playing, the more sure they are of one thing: something screwy's going on. And they're going to get to the bottom of it, whether Haranco likes it or not. With a powerful corporation tracking their every move, the pair will have to use every ounce of smarts, sense and courage they've got to solve the mystery before people get hurt—people who include not just themselves, but everyone they love.
While the premise behind Playing Tyler, a debut YA thriller by T.L. Costa, sounded intriguing, it also seemed ambitious. Maybe too ambitious for a newbie author. Turning a plot that already sounds far-fetched into something believable—well, I just wasn't sure Costa could pull it off. And she didn't, not really. Still, there were things the author did right, things that surprised me, things that made the novel more entertaining than I thought it would be. Tyler, for one—the thoughts constantly pin-balling around in his head, echoed in the stacatto rhythm of his narration, as well as his hot-tempered, half-baked ideas and actions just seemed right-on for a teenage boy with ADHD. After reading a few chapters of the book, I actually said aloud to my husband, "Wow, no wonder [a kid we know]'s the way he is, if this is what goes on in his head all day." So, that at least seemed authentic to me. The rest? Not so much. Costa's prose definitely impressed me more than I thought it would, but Playing Tyler's still full of contrived plot twists, under-developed characters and a storyline that should have been trimmed in order to create a stronger, tighter narrative. I ended up enjoying this one, more or less, but it's still a pretty average thriller, in my (oh, so humble) opinion. And yet, Costa is an author on which I'll definitely be keeping me eye.
(Readalikes: Reminded me of The Kill Room by Jeffery Deaver)
for strong language, sexual innuendo/content, depictions of underage drinking/illegal drug use, and violence
To the FTC, with love: I received a finished copy of Playing Tyler from the generous folks at Strange Chemistry via those at BookSparks PR. Thank you!
Labels:2013 50 States Challenge,Attention Disorders,C Grade Books,R-rated Books,T.L. Costa,Thrillers,U.S. Settings: Connecticut,Video Games/Online Gaming,YA Novels
Laura at Library of Clean Reads 16 September, 2013 10:37
I contemplated reading this one too but from reading some reviews first I learned there would be content that I'd rather not read. Yours is a great review.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Based in the Faculty of Business and Law, Swinburne's Centre for Social Impact (CSI) is looking for an experienced professional to establish the Swinburne Social Startup Studio. The Startup Studio will deliver entrepreneurial training and development to early stage social enterprises, with a focus on the business model and business planning, together with opportunities to grow networks with other social entrepreneurs and the broader ecosystem.
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As leaders we know that complaining about a situation is a waste of time: it changes nothing.
So how do we choose whether to leave the situation, change the situation, or accept it?
The answer is that we need to get clear on who we are and who we want to become.
Inner Leadership provides tools and a framework that help us decide who we want to become, and find the best way to move forward from where we are now.
This entry was posted in 3: Find the Opportunities, 4: Choose What's Best for You, 5: Know Your Purpose & Values, Inner Leadership and tagged Eckhardt Tolle by The Churning. Bookmark the permalink.


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