Welcome to the Conversation Pit, where we answer your questions about us as people! Brandon’s sister is having TWO BABIES, so we’re bringing this to the main feed. We discuss our summer fits, childhood memories that led us to who we are now, our favorite art to observe, and whether Amanda is a cheeky little goat.
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Find Us Online
- website: https://jointhepartypod.com
- patreon: https://patreon.com/jointhepartypod
- instagram: https://instagram.com/jointhepartypod
- twitter: https://twitter.com/jointhepartypod
- tumblr: https://jointhepartypod.tumblr.com
- facebook: https://facebook.com/jointhepartypod
- merch & music: http://jointhepartypod.com/merch
Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Theme Song: Lyrics by Eric Silver, music by Brandon Grugle. Vocals by Brandon Grugle, Lauren Shippen, Julia Schifini, Roux Bedrosian, Eric Silver, Tyler Silver, and Amanda McLoughlin. Available for purchase here.
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: https://multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign, a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, or marathon our completed stories with the Camp-Paign, a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
[theme]
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to my living room, where there is a carpet, the shade of the drink I'm serving you. What's that? It's a creme de menthe mixed drink, because we're in the 70s in my Conversation Pit, and we're here for you. Hello.
Eric: Unfortunately, you can't sit there because that's where one of Amanda's plants live.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: Oh, you can't sit there.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: That's—
Amanda: No, no, no, no, no.
Eric: All the plants are there.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, that chair, actually, I'm saving that for one of Amanda's plants.
Brandon: Ooh. Ah.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: That makes sense.
Amanda: It can't hold humans, but it can hold a human-size plant.
Julia: Ah. Of course.
Brandon: Ah.
Amanda: What's up? Hi, welcome. It is— it is a Tuesday and not a bad Tuesday because we are here dropping a hot and fresh convo pit. We're making it because— because Brandon is about to fly to Texas to meet his new nephews. Hi, Brandon.
Eric: It's me.
Julia: Two babies.
Eric: It's me—
Amanda: Two babies.
Eric: —Brunc— Bruncle.
Brandon: Bruncle.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Hey, Eric, that's not bad.
Julia: Not bad.
Eric: Bruncle. Ungle is, I guess, would be for Grugle. That'd be pretty good.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Grung— Grungle is I think—
Julia: Grungle.
Eric: Grungle is good. Bru—Bruncle Grungle.
Brandon: My favorite meal is—
Julia: Bruncle is just an uncle who's also a brother, which is most—
Amanda: Well—
Julia: —Bruncles.
Brandon: My favorite meal of the day is Bruncle, so I think it works. Yeah.
Julia: Hmm. So what is— that's brunch, and what?
Brandon: Uncle.
Julia: Oh, okay.
Eric: Yeah. That's where you stare in the fridge for 20 minutes and eventually, take out a Bud Heavy.
Amanda: Nice.
Brandon: Bruncle dinner.
Amanda: Bud Heavy. Incredible. So thank you, everybody, for understanding, but in order for— for Brandon to go meet the new beebs, we are dropping you a convo pit. There'll be a— a regular episode next week, don't you worry. And by the way, this is all access for all people because everybody deserves good Tuesdays. No bad Tuesdays in the world.
Brandon: None of them.
Amanda: But if you are a patron, you can go ahead and check out the video for this Conversation Pit. We're making it available to all the patrons. You're welcome.
Brandon: I'm wearing a funny hat.
Amanda: Quick, Brandon, grab a hat. Grab a hat.
Eric: I'm also wearing a funny hat, but it's not what you think. It just— it just has a pig on it, that’s all, it’s not funny.
Amanda: My— it's really cute, Eric.
Eric: It's a— it's a— it's a hig, it's a hat pig.
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: Or a pat, a pig hat.
Julia: We have to stop doing this.
Eric: Or Julia, what if instead it's gonna be a running thing of the podcast?
Julia: Nooo.
Eric: Here it is.
Brandon: The entire podcast.
Eric: You asked for the opposite, now it's happening.
Julia: Nooo.
Amanda: I— I have been wanting to just say and just— instead of taking this to you privately, I am just going to air it out in public, that I— I do think, Julia, that this was a goopportunity—
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: —that we had and goopnouncement when we—
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: —announced the goop that we were going to scoop, and I just wanted to just sort of, like, bring that to your attention.
Brandon: When--
Julia: Heard, chef.
Eric: Corner— in that, I want to turn the corner and get to the rest of the episodes.
Amanda: Corner behind, let's put this bit behind us.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Well, when—when what's your face gets canceled, it is going to be called a Scoop Goop, so that's—
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Gwyneth Paltrow? The—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I think she's— she's—
Julia: The woman who definitely got canceled because she was on trial recently?
Eric: I think that she's— has passed the speed of sound and she's in the speed force.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: So I think that that's not going to happen.
Brandon: Okay, okay, yeah.
Eric: I think she passed it. She just like ha— she's holding a jade egg, you— with her kegels and she said--
Julia: I liked—
Eric: That's a real one. I didn't make that one up. That's a real one.
Julia: No, I know. I liked that you were like, "The speed force," and my brain was like, "Isn't she in the MCU, not the DCU?” Right? Yeah.
Eric: I got coffee on my face.
Amanda: Ooh. Whoops.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: Well, Eric, as you— as you get prepared, don't worry, this entire convo pit is shag carpeting, just roll around a couple times and it'll wipe up whatever smell—
Eric: Yeah, it'll get the coffee that I got on my shorts off. Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Thank you.
Julia: Yeah, when you were describing the carpet earlier, Amanda, I was picturing you handing me like a scotch on like— just scotch, not on the rocks.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Julia: And then also the carpet was just like shit brown.
Amanda: I— I was gonna say burnt orange—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: —but that's fine—that's fine, too.
Julia: That too. That too.
Amanda: That too.
Brandon: Now, I imagined walking into— Eric walking into his living room in a Conversation Pit with Amanda squarely in the middle, surrounded by plants and just going [laughs]
Julia: "Oh, Charles, you're so funny."
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, it was more like that. It was mostly like that.
Amanda: Not unlike what our apartment is like at any given day.
Julia: Damn. Called out.
Amanda: Let's— let's reach into the fish bowl of index cards, not what you think. They are question prompts—
Brandon: It's not what you think.
Amanda: —from our audience. This is from Mage Silverleaf who asks, "Do we have any exciting summer plans or any time this year plans in general?" Thank you, Mage.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Oh. I have a lot of wedding activities for the rest of the summer because friends of ours are getting big married, big married.
Amanda: Big married.
Julia: Not— not small married, big married.
Brandon: Big married.
Amanda: How's it big married?
Julia: It's like a three-day affair. It's upstate in like Oneonta at, like, basically a summer camp where we're all gonna stay—
Brandon: That's fun.
Julia: —in yurts.
Brandon: Yurts.
Julia: And it's just gonna be like big— big camp vibes. So big married because it's the whole event.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: I'm so happy Big Mary found somebody.
Amanda: Me, too.
Eric: Yeah. She deserves someone.
Julia: Well, she keeps rolling down the river and she couldn't settle down.
Brandon: My sister's having babies. That's the big thing.
Julia: Really? Since when?
Amanda: Now, Brandon, had the babies been had or the babies impending?
Brandon: The babies are impending today, should be.
Julia: At time of recording.
Amanda: Exciting.
Eric: Those— those babies pending, damn.
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brandon: And I'm flying— I guess— I just bought a flight for, like, 9:00 AM tomorrow, so I should be there tomorrow.
Julia: Nice. Hell yeah.
Brandon: And then yeah, I just got back from that wedding in Italy and Prague. So after this, I'm not doing anything.
Eric: Woo.
Brandon: I think the plan is to sit and garden.
Amanda: Love it.
Julia: Nice. Well deserved.
Eric: Well, I'm gonna visit Brandon's sister in the hospital. I'm doing that right after this. Well, here's the thing, guys, New York City sucks in August. It's one of the ways that August sucks. It's the worst. It's probably the worst month. Everyone says it's February. I think everyone should get a layer of body fat and fucking deal with it.
Julia: No.
Eric: And then, Julia, that's why you complained about why February is the worst. But no, no, August is the worst. The only thing that's good about August is tomatoes and literally, I can't think of anything else. So—
Julia: And the birth of my husband.
Eric: No. It doesn't outweigh— doesn't outweigh tomatoes, so—
Brandon: It just kinda--
Amanda: The first couple days of August, so it's sort of a July holdover in mine, yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Meh.
Brandon: Jake and tomato sort of go together like—
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: —like—
Eric: Shoo be doo bop doo bop?
Julia: [sings words to We Go Together from Grease]
Brandon: Exactly. So—
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So we went and visited Jasper Cartwright, that British guy, you know?
Brandon: Knife crime.
Eric: I just— no, they don't have guns, so they're just really worried about knife crime, which is the funniest term for crime that I've ever heard. And we visited him in— in August. I think it was last year or two years ago?
Amanda: Last year.
Eric: It was last year. Geez. And it was so nice for it to be August 10th, and it was 65 degrees. That we said— Amanda and I said to each other as we were sitting at a double decker bus in— in Dublin, which is where we went after Manchester because we thought it would be more fun to fly out of the Dublin airport. And we're in— and I'm eating the best cheese and tomato sandwich I've ever had because Ireland subsidizes their dairy farmers, LOL.
Amanda: It was from a Pret, and it was still so good.
Eric: It was from a Pret and it was so good. I'm like, "What if we summer in Dublin?" And then Amanda organized her family around that idea, and now it's happening.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Oh. That's great.
Amanda: It's a milestone birthday for my dad, so me and my three siblings, our spouses and partners, and my dad's cool girlfriend are all going to be in Ireland together. We're so excited.
Brandon: That's great.
Julia: Nice.
Brandon: Some Irish cheddar, some of that.
Amanda: I mean, yeah, the Irish whiskey primarily.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: But also cheese, it's gonna be great.
Brandon: Yeah. Hell yeah.
Eric: So good. I'm so— I'm so excited.
Brandon: I'm pretty sure we also substitute our dairy farmers. We just don't— we're just not as good as—
Eric: Why are we so bad at it?
Brandon: I know. We're just not as good.
Amanda: It also— they— they mandate that a certain amount of— of, like, dairy products used by foodservice companies is Irish grown.
Eric: Right, it's that.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: Because that's why the Pret was so good. Like, again, this was a five—
Amanda: They had to buy more cheese.
Eric: This was like a five euro sandwich—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —that I bought and it was the best cheese sandwich I've ever had in my life.
Brandon: Smart.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: It was so good. And I was like—
Brandon: But have you tried, Eric—
Eric: "—This is the height of luxury” in a double decker bus in Dublin.
Brandon: Have you tried American cheese, Eric?
Eric: I have. I love American cheese, Brandon. And yet, this was a little bit better. I love cheese sandwiches. I love grilled cheeses. I do love cheese, but people should— we should get our shit together.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Very true.
Julia: I mean, you just have to buy from the right companies. That's what it is at the end of the day, you know?
Eric: I just don't want to— I want to—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: — buy a five euro cheese sandwich—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —for it to be good. As much as I love moving money from my savings account to my checking account to buy Midnight Moon, Julia, I— I would rather just buy a five euro sandwich.
Amanda: It— it's like— imagine if you went to McDonald's and the cheese on the—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: —McDonald's hamburger was like incredible like Tillamook, you know, cheddar—
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: —or something. Like, that's what we're talking about here.
Brandon: It’s a full-- Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: And also like— I mean, I also love going to grocery stores in other countries. So going back there and getting, like, super cheap halloumi is just going to be crazy.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I'm— I'm still reeling from how cheap halloumi is in Europe.
Brandon: I went to a weird, like, local— not weird, just like super some— like local, sort of nothing grocery store in Italy, and it was the weirdest experience of my life.
Amanda: Tell me.
Eric: It's so much fun.
Brandon: There's just pasta everywhere.
Eric: I love it.
Amanda: Fresh, dried?
Julia: Yeah, bro.
Brandon: Both. And just tons of different cheeses and like— yeah, it was— it was wild. It's just— yeah, to your point, Eric, like, it's just so weird the— the difference in the grocery stores from here to other countries.
Eric: I think it's so fun.
Brandon: It's fun.
Eric: Like, there really isn't that much variation throughout the United States, though. I do like go into regional grocery stores. Like, I have a little bit of a crush on Kroger right now, just from how— whenever I go to vis— when we visit my mom in Nashville, which we're going to the 5th to the 10th of July, which I'm very excited about. And especially now that Kroger bought Murray's Cheese so they have a Murray's Cheese—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —counter inside of Kroger, which I think is tight.
Brandon: I got one in my Fred Meyer, baby.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: I thought you were gonna be like, I have one in my fridge, it's called all the cheese I bought.
Julia: Shout out to the company that fired me. Woo.
Brandon: Woo.
Eric: Was that the one that was a— that was a front for the mob, or is that a different one?
Julia: No, it was a different one.
Eric: Oh.
Julia: I quit that one. I didn't get fired from that one.
Eric: Oh, okay. So was your severance package Midnight Moon?
Julia: No. They didn't offer me a severance package.
Brandon: Hey, fuck Murray. Hey, Murray, listen to me.
Julia: Because I was an hourly worker.
Brandon: Listen to me, Murray, fuck you.
Amanda: Bummer.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Was it Gruyere?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: So there isn't as much variance in grocery stores. Going to grocery stores in other countries is awesome. I'm mad that we didn't go in Norway to a grocery store. I think we should have.
Amanda: The only one we saw was an international grocery store, which was just American food, and Indian food, and British food—
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: —and other— other kinds of foods that we were quite used to finding. But they did have a lot of like cool sort of oil packed, like pickled, you know, vegetables from the Mediterranean.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Anyway, that I think was like vaguely marketed as Turkish that we wouldn't find it typical grocery stores.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: For sure. Also, that's— I'm changing my brand to be vaguely marketed as Turkish.
Brandon: I don't think you should do that, Eric.
Julia: Yeah, I was gonna say. Probably not a good idea.
Eric: Oh, yeah. I— I owe a PR company a lot of money. I already spent all of it on Midnight Moon, but I gotta— I should pick up a job.
Amanda: But no, I'm excited about that stuff too, and we're visiting my sibling in Syracuse and going to, for the first time in my life, the holy grail of Genesee Brewing Company in Rochester, New York.
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: Yeah, baby.
Amanda: Producer of, perhaps, my favorite beer, their summer Ruby Red Kolsch, which Julia has lovingly--
Brandon: Ooh. I haven't had that one.
Amanda: Brought from Long Island, I almost said dispensaries, beverages to— to Brooklyn. I think last year for your birthday maybe.
Eric: Yes.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: I special ordered it this year for Eric's birthday. As you can tell, Eric's birthday is at the beginning of the distributions series window for summer beer. And I'm so excited, they have like things on tap and they're, obviously, like brewery that they don't distribute. They have merch that I'm planning to spend a fair amount of money on. And on Wednesdays, they give away a free pint glass with every pint of beer.
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: Whoa.
Amanda: So I am— I'm very excited.
Brandon: That's a good deal.
Eric: I think we did structure our road trip around going there on Wednesday, didn't we?
Amanda: We did not choose our destination orders based on when the pint night is.
Eric: That's fair.
Brandon: So if you have like four pints, do they just give you four pint glasses?
Amanda: It might be limited to one per person, but they didn't say on the website. There will be four of us, so we could— we'll walk away with four, certainly.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: I'm excited.
Eric: Yeah. Brandon, the— the Ruby Red Kolsch tastes like the Shiner Ruby Red, but it's a coal— it's like a—
Brandon: A coalition instead of a—
Eric: A coalition instead of a light beer, yeah
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds really good.
Eric: And I love— I fucking love Ruby Red. For some reason, they're— they are not doing that distribution of that beer in New York state, so we're going to our friend's house in New Jersey tomorrow on the Fourth of July, and we're stopping at a liquor store so I can grab some where they do have distribution.
Julia: Wild.
Amanda: Yeah. When you look at the map—
Brandon: For the Genesee or the Shiner?
Amanda: The Shiner.
Eric: Oh, the Shiner.
Amanda: Yeah, because when you look at the map—
Brandon: Oh, I can't even get a Shiner here. Like, it's very— yeah.
Amanda: Yeah, it's really odd. Something has changed, I think, about their distribution, like, partner or pattern.
Brandon: They— they very— very rarely done like the flavors outside. It's really only Ruby Redbird and it's pretty— it's pretty small compared to—
Eric: Oh, they— and they make the craziest shit. Like, the prickly pear one is so good.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. So good. I remember, like, being in Texas when I was going to buy beer and you could get one of the 24 packs of like 8 different flavors.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: It was— it was fun. Yeah.
Eric: That's cool. That's cool. And then they're— and then they're like, "Here's a kolache." And you're like, "Oh, a regular thing. Everyone understands."
Brandon: I didn't tell you guys. I went to a kolache place in Prague, because that's sort of where it's from-ish.
Eric: Oh, hell yeah.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: And they're from the Czech Republic, obviously. And so in Texas, they are—they are a Texas thing because of Czech immigrants.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: And so the guy that I went— who owned the Czech, the kolache place in Prague that I went to, I talked to him and he was like, "Oh, yeah, I used to live in Ennis," which is this town outside of Dallas.
Amanda: What?
Eric: Oh, weird.
Julia: That’s so weird.
Brandon: And so it's like this weird, yeah, just combination of Texas and Czech Republic people and I was like, "Oh, yeah, you know, West which is the— the little area for kolaches in Texas." He's like, "Oh, hell yeah. You know, of course." It was so wild.
Eric: It's weird that he brought the kolache back from Texas to Prague.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: That's what's confusing.
Brandon: Well, they don't do like— they don't do the— really the traditional kolaches in Texas, unless maybe I just haven't had them. But like the traditional one is like poppy seed.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Oh, sure.
Brandon: And I— yeah. It's not very sweet. But yeah, it's really good.
Eric: Listen, you can put a hotdog in anything and I'll say it's authentic, whatever you want.
Amanda: Yeah. Seriously.
Brandon: Eric, that's not the kolaches, though. Those are— those are the Texas kolaches.
Eric: No, I know. I'm talking about the Texas one.
Brandon: Oh, okay. Yes.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And I'm saying generally about hotdogs. I'll say whatever you want. I'll say whatever you want if you put a hotdog in it.
Amanda: Incredible. There's a real like hamantaschen-kolache-dumpling Venn diagram.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: All of which I'm into, like—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —please sign me up for any of those intersections.
Eric: It's only a kolache if you put a jalapeno in it.
Amanda: Hmm. Right, right. Otherwise, it's just sparkling wine.
Eric: It's just a sparkling dumpling.
Amanda: Cheeky Little Goat would like to know, "Folks, what is your favorite summer outfit right now?"
Eric: Was this you? Did you write this question?
Julia: Are you the Cheeky Little Goat?
Amanda: It is— it is completely plausible, but no, I am not Cheeky Little Goat. I did just want to extrapolate on my Kim Possible big pants, little shirty, sort of trend that I have identified in previous Join the Party content to say that that is also my fit of the summer. I have some, like, loose, sort of like high waisted pants, and then I have a number of, like, crop tops that I— I really, really like. I finally found the elusive like bra that can go under a crop top, but not look like it's ruining the outfit.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: And so it's opened up a whole new sort of realm of possibility for me.
Brandon: Could you— would you say it's now Kim Possible to do that?
Amanda: It is Kim Possible for me to wear parachute-y, high-waisted pants, little shirty every day of the summer.
Julia: Yeah. I'm very much a like— I don't know what this cut is for people who were in the video, but like this kind of version of a crop top and just shorts—
Amanda: Yeah, like a high neck—
Julia: —all summer.
Amanda: —like a— little mock turtleneck type situation but like— but it's sleeveless.
Brandon: Like, it's not like cut-off sleeveless. Like, it's got more of a curve, yes.
Julia: No. Here.
Amanda: Defined, yeah.
Julia: I’ll stand up for the video.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: But like this is the outfit that I basically wear all summer.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: And then if it is cool enough, I will put like a Dad Hawaiian Shirt or a Target Boys XL pattern shirt over that.
Amanda: Shout out.
Eric: Everyone mark Target Boys XL in your bingo cards.
Brandon: Woo.
Julia: There you go. If I don't say it, they'll stop paying me.
Brandon: That would be the greatest grift of all-time.
Amanda: When did I negotiate that sponsorship?
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: It's been a hashtag here the whole time.
Julia: Oh, what— woops, I'm sorry.
Amanda: Oh, my connection.
Eric: Amanda, would you say that this made it Kim bra-sable for you to wear those shirts?
Amanda: Hey, that's very good, Eric. I'd also say you're—
Eric: I— that is why I was silent for five minutes.
Amanda: Thank you. And I'll say you're living in Fit City, population Eric. Eric actually stepped up his fits over the last year, but specifically this summer. The— the fits are— they're giving comfortable, they're giving stylish, they're giving sustainably sourced, and they're giving—
Eric: Sustainably sourced?
Amanda: Yeah. Shoe, hat combos for every outfit that you put together. Tell us about your fit journey.
Eric: Well, I don't know if you've seen, but the Abercrombie & Fitch stock price has been going way up. Diamond Hands, hold on to that. No, man. I— I mean, like, there—it's been a lot easier to kind of see— find that stuff as like social media has eroded. I think that, like, the exposure to men's fashion in Reddit, like people are finding that stuff. But a lot of that time, people were just like wearing Oxford Shirt. So the— the rise of Die, Workwear—
Julia: Were they sick?
Eric: Yeah, they were sick because they're on Reddit.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So the rise of Die, Workwear, honestly, is a wonderful— wonderful poster and has been giving out men's fashion advice like he's giving poppy seed kolaches out to the—to the— to the poor. It's been great. And he's pointing me towards this guy who— and I— I gotta look this guy up. But he's like a— he's a shop teacher in upstate New York, and he's like this bigger dude, and he wears the best stuff. And I've been following him on— on Instagram and on Twitter for a while. And just like seeing the stuff that he's been buying has been really helpful. So I've just like— I've been buying better shorts that I like, my hats had been helpful. The— the T-shirts at Abercrombie & Fitch had been really helpful, because a lot of them are cropped, and that's like actually the perfect size for me as a medium square-shaped man.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So that's— that's been really— that's been really helpful. And then I bought— I bought a bunch of jackets. I wore— you— if you saw me on the tour, you saw me wearing all those jackets. But those— plus, I got this like barn coat from L.L. Bean that I wore a little bit. So just like figuring out some layering stuff has been nice.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And yeah, wearing shorts I actually like have been— have been good.
Brandon: That's nice.
Amanda: Love it.
Eric: Yeah, shoutout to linen. Me and linen, best friends.
Brandon: Oh, I do— I do love a linen. That's nice.
Eric: Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna look up that guy.
Brandon: My fit in stark contrast to Eric has proceeded to decline, because I live in Seattle now and everyone here—
Julia: You were wearing a great shirt the other day, Brandon. I just want to shout out that shirt.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: It was a good shirt.
Amanda: It was.
Brandon: I don't know which one you're talking about. But everyone here in Seattle dresses like shit, and it's like a favorite pastime.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: And so I have no pressure to wear anything but something that covers my body.
Julia: Fair.
Amanda: Does that feel freeing to you?
Brandon: I don't really— like I don't care about clothes very much. Like, I like—
Julia: Your care has also deteriorated along with your fits.
Brandon: I like to look nice occasionally. Like— you know, like if I'm— if I'm going to hang out or something, I'll put something cool on. But, you know, working from home and living in Seattle, it's like I got a hole in the crotch of my pants right now, it doesn't fucking matter.
Amanda: No, no.
Julia: Only the coffee ghost. Only the coffee ghost will know.
Amanda: Excellent. We are going to move on to our next question, but Eric definitely will include that link in the description.
Eric: Alright. I'm gonna keep looking this up because I need to— I gotta shout out this guy out.
Amanda: Yeah. I think his name is David. He's like a watch restorer--
Eric: I think it's David.
Amanda: —in Rochester maybe.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: But no, he's— he's a real— he's a real burly man style icon. He really is.
Eric: I know. That's why I want to look it up because he's so great.
Amanda: So here is a question from Catherine Frasier, "What has been your favorite place to visit?" And I'm going to limit it to like the last couple of years. What's like— it can be—
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Amanda: —you know, around your house. It can be like a new place you went to. It can be a place you just feel really cozy and at home. But I'd love to know, in the last couple years, what's been your favorite place you've visited?
Brandon: Hmm. I— I don't know if this is my favorite, but I— I think the most surprising—
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: —and therefore the one that really springs to mind was Juneau. We went to Juneau, Alaska.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: It's such a cool little town. I mean, it was—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: —obviously very, extremely cold. But it's like— it's a really nice mix of like, really down-to-earth sort of— I mean, it's Alaska. Like, no one is terribly wealthy there. Except for the— the robber barons who run the shipping. But—
Amanda: Classic.
Brandon: But yeah, like a nice mix of, like, very down-to-earth people, but also like they have— like, one of the best breweries I've ever been to is there. They have some like nice restaurants and, like, you know, it's obviously on the water. Just very cool town. I think it's underrated.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Love it.
Julia: I feel like I haven't been doing enough traveling lately to answer this question really well.
Amanda: But you have discovered a lot of new cool places near where you live. Is there any one of those that you're like, "Oh, like, I love to hang out at this place and I can't imagine the life before I was able to do that."?
Julia: Yeah. I mean, there's— there's a couple of, like, restaurants and bars and stuff that I feel like I've— I've discovered or have opened fairly recently. But I'm— I'm trying to think of like a place where I'm like, "Yeah, this will"—you know what? I'll— I'll tell you there's a place on Long Island, on the like North Fork of Long Island, because if you're unfamiliar with Long Island, it looks like a fish. So on the North part of the tail. There's—
Eric: Now, Julia, is there like a bumper sticker or a T-shirt—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —or some sort of design you could burn into some— some wood—
Julia: Skin?
Eric: —I found on the beach that shows that?
Julia: Yeah, I'm sure there is. I couldn't possibly tell you what it would look like but— yeah. But there's a town over there called Greenport, and Greenport has a lot of, like, really cute restaurants, really cute bars. It is like on the shore, like, of the Long Island Sound, which is really beautiful and kind of in contrast to where I live on the South Shore, which is where the Great South Bay is. So it's— it's a really nice kind of, like, getaway. Like, Jake and I went on a— a little date night last weekend—
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: —to Greenport and went to a bunch of really cool and cute places, so—
Brandon: That's fun.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Are you saying that the— the Great South Bay sucks in compare— like—
Julia: No. It's just like— it is a very different vibe than the Great South Bay.
Brandon: Got it.
Eric: I'm quote-tweeting what Brandon just said and say “Summary of The Great Gatsby." First of all, I want to shout out the guy who I was talking about. His name is David Lane. He's bigfits1—
Brandon: His name is David Lane?
Eric: His name is David Lane. He's so sick.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Is he also a sort of magician?
Eric: I— of fashions, Brandon. Find—
Julia: He's going off from being a magician, yeah.
Eric: Of going onto eBay and finding vintage coats. bigfits1 on Instagram, and I think it's the same on Twitter. But he's— he's just an incredible fellow, because he— he posts outfits all the time. Man, I'm just saying going somewhere col— colder during the summer, honestly.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Just trying to find somewhere to go where I'm not sweating— sweating my balls off. Actually, we're going— we're doing a bunch of traveling this summer. And, like, at the end of the road trip that we're doing through New York State, we're going up to Canada through Toronto up to the Muskoka, which is where I went to summer camp. And I have not been back in a very long time. And I love being in the woods anyway. I love being in the woods in New York State, but just like that is an extension of that, because, like, there's so many more lakes in Canada, like everywhere. And also they have a culture of like summer houses more. Like everyone has a cottage, which is what they call them, because I think it's because they don't have to pay any money for college and for healthcare.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Not that Canada is much better than the United States, but that is a thing. So—
Brandon: No, it is.
Amanda: That's one difference.
Brandon: It's much better than the United States.
Eric: I'm— I— listen, who— who can say? I don't know. Who can say? So going— going up there is going to be really fun, and I— I do miss being in that area. My dad, like, invested in a hotel that was being built while we were in sum— while we were at summer camp like, again, 15 years ago.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So he gets to, like, use the— what— like the condo hotel rooms, like, twice a week— like for two weeks at a time, and we're gonna go stay there.
Brandon: When you said invested, do you mean he bought a timeshare?
Julia: Yeah. I'm like, "That's just a timeshare, isn't it?"
Eric: No, no, no. It wasn't built yet, guys.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: It really— he actually did invest in it. So I remember we— we were like 17 and— at camp and we were wearing hard hats and we were, like, walking around in—
Brandon: That's fun.
Eric: —in the thing. But my dad did say that there was a great opportunity somewhere at Celebration, Florida, which is unrelated. I don't know. Never mind.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brandon: He kept you in a hotel room for 14 hours?
Eric: Yeah, right.
Amanda: And then we got a voucher for a free appetizer.
Eric: Yeah. We were very excited about all the Mickey mice that were in the hotel room. So we're very excite— I'm really excited to go back up there. It's— it's been a long time. And just like being in lakes, like I— you know, I— my family did grow up in Long Island, so I have— I have spent a lot of time on beaches, but like man, I love lakes. Lakes are great. And just being able to, like, jump in a big body of water and not be all salty. I'm like, "Hell yeah, dawg."
Amanda: Absolutely. I— I— we actually went to Norway in the Arctic Circle for our honeymoon. It was incredibly cool. And I, like, never gonna forget like all the different, like, sights and— and kinds of land that we saw that I've never seen before.
Eric: Kinds of lands?
Amanda: Yeah. Like— like ways the Earth could look that I didn't know it could look outside of photos. But I— I actually have a— like our laundromat moved in the last couple of years. Our neighborhood keeps closing laundromats to turn into restaurants. One of which is called Laundromat, and it's fine dining—
Eric: It sucks.
Amanda: —and it fucking blows.
Eric: It sucks.
Amanda: I hate it here. But one of— here being Earth, not— not Greenpoint.
Eric: Existence, the existence.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Greenpoint good, existence bad.
Amanda: Greenpoint great. And so anyway, long story short, I had to go to a new laundromat and it's next door to a dive bar which has— where it's kind of like— not really dive-y. It's like a little bit fancy, but it's backyard. It's beautiful. It's like really perfectly sort of canopied by trees. They have a $10 Hibiscus Margarita in the summers.
Brandon: Ooh.
Amanda: And my absolute favorite thing to do is to, like, nurse one margarita for two hours and sit in the backyard, either between doing laundry or just reading— you know, when the weather is nice. And the fact that it's shady means it extends the weather window in which—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —I can be not acutely uncomfortable sitting outdoors.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: So—
Eric: It's big enough you're surprised that it's back there, but also like, you know, they're not nice backyards. It's usually just like some back— almost like an alley that they've just, like, thrown some gravel on, but it's almost like there's enough trees that it actually seems like a nice place to hang out for an extended period of time.
Amanda: Yeah. And lots of planters. Little— the old, like— you know, a duck feed trough from Tractor Supply turned into a planter. So it feels like established and a little bit like a secret.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: So I like hanging out there.
Eric: Didn't we have like a long conversation where the coffee ghost was trying to convince us that eating outside was good? Do you remember that?
Brandon: I don't remember that specific conversation, but the coffee ghost loves eating outside.
Julia: I agree with the coffee ghost. I love eating outside.
Brandon: I— I think eating outside is against nature. I think humans—
Julia: I think fundamentally you're wrong.
Brandon: No. I think— I think humans decided a long time ago that it would be best to shield food from other things.
Amanda: We invented indoors, we did.
Brandon: So I— I think that is wrong and outdoor is too chaotic. I like the controlled environment of temperature and no other things trying to eat my food.
Eric: I'm 100% with you there, bu— and it's also because there's nowhere good to eat outside in New York City. And I think like this is one of the one places that it might actually— it's nice to hang out.
Amanda: Love it.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: I did have a follow-up question from Cheeky Little Goat, Eric, that you reminded me of just a minute ago, which is, "If you do go swimming do prefer the beach, a boat, or a pool?" Or I'll add in, a lake?
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Well, I do also want to say, I think Amanda you were the cheeky little goat in goat party, so this could actually be Amanda.
Amanda: It’s meeee.
Eric: I think it is Amanda. That's what I'm saying.
Julia: Surprising no one, I'm a beach girly.
Eric: Yeah. Well, that's because of that curse Poseidon has on you that you have to go in the— in the water once a week or then he'll take back—
Brandon: Cursed or blessing?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Because he'll take back Jake? Question mark?
Julia: He'll try to take away my— my ability to see the future.
Eric: Oh, yeah, yeah. But— or maybe he'll keep it and no one believes you.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Now, is that worse or better?
Julia: Worse. It's worse.
Eric: Yeah. If only there was a story about that, that had— that had a moral.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Hmm. Shit.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I am not a big swimming fan. I grew up with a bunch of— with pools and stuff in Texas, and I just— I don't really care to get wet, unless it's a shower.
Eric: Quote-tweet the Great-- Summary of the Great Gatsby.
Brandon: Great Gatsby. If I had to pick— I mean, I like— I love being on a boat, like going boating and— and doing both things.
Julia: Wow.
Brandon: That's always fun. I don't want to get into water.
Julia: Rich boy.
Brandon: I don't have a boat, Julia.
Eric: Damn, dude. We really— we got him back, finally. It fucking happened.
Amanda: Julia, you're the person I would— if a gun to my head, someone said, "Find a boat." You're the person I'd call. You're the most proximate to boats.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah. But Brandon keeps saying that boats are rich people things.
Brandon: They are!
Eric: In Texas— in Texas, the only person allowed to have a boat is still JFK.
Brandon: I'm gonna Google “how much is a boat” real quick.
Amanda: I'm sure it's a lot.
Julia: Oh, no. Boats are stupid expensive, Brandon. That's not even the question.
Brandon: Okay! Then what are we talking about?
Eric: If only—
Julia: But it's like you buy that instead of a second car where you come from. It's like solidly middle-class—
Brandon: What? I can't even afford a second car, Julia.
Julia: It's like a solidly middle-class thing is what I'm saying.
Eric: There needs to be— you need to realize that there are trashy boats out there.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Trashy boats. There are—
Amanda: There's— a free boat from someone that you put like an old motor that you restored onto and it may or may not be seaworthy, but there you go.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: I'm not talking about a yacht, Brandon. I'm talking about like a 20-foot, like, boat, you know?
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: That's nothing.
Eric: And the name of the boat is like, "Oops, there goes my alimony," or something.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I don't know, guys.
Amanda: Thanks, Trisha.
Brandon: It's just named Thanks, Trisha?
Eric: Honestly, that’s a great name for a boat.
Julia: Thanks, Trisha. Hash S for sarcasm.
Amanda: Yes, exactly.
Brandon: That's really good. I like that.
Amanda: Or— and you could be like, "I'm just thanking Trisha for the lessons she imparted to me."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Thanks, Trisha.
Eric: Our relation— Judge, our relationship is great, and that's why I should see Cassandra more on the weekends.
Brandon: Oh, the one exception, I do really enjoy hot tubs.
Eric: Yeah, hot tubs are great.
Amanda: Hmm.
Julia: Okay. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Hot tubs are great. Eric, is it lake for you, of all these available bodies of water?
Eric: I don't know, because, like, I didn't get the chance to swim in lakes a lot. So I swam in like a great lake once on Lake Erie, which is where my grandparents used to live. And I like swimming in lakes, but they get freaking cold. But I think I should say— I think I should say like I would rather swim in a lake that has a dock on it, though, because jumping out of a boat, you're like, "Oh, dang, where am I going to go with all this wet? I guess back in the boat. The place that's not supposed to have wet."
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: So I feel like tracking water into a boat is just more annoying than anything else. So, yeah, I would say a lake because it's nice. The freshwater, and then getting onto a— like, getting onto a dock from an old weird ladder—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —is pretty great.
Amanda: Yeah. We— like a swimming platform or something, you could like lay on it, you know, and just go back into—
Eric: Yeah, exactly.
Amanda: —lake. That'd be awesome.
Eric: Oh, man. Yeah, the dock is there but then like 200 feet out is a platform.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I love that stuff. That's good stuff.
Amanda: Yeah. That's ideal. Love it. Alright, folks, here's another question from Mage. "What is an unparalleled and iconic activity/food or drink pairing to you?" So let me tell you a little more. Mage said," Not your favorite foods specifically, but a food or a drink paired with a specific activity. Like, for him, he almost never eats burgers, but after a long hike, the, like, burger beer combo just like—"
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: "—is perfection."
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Is there a food and drink activity combo?
Eric: Yeah, I got—
Brandon: Oh, yeah.
Eric: I got this. For sure a 100%, it is a bagel with cream cheese and coffee. And I am being— I am on a form of transportation where I am not driving, whether that is me in the passenger seat or me on a train or me on a bus. That is incredibly ideal. I am, like, imagining me on the— maybe on the subway, going to the beach. Could be one, going to Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis, which is an incredible beach out— all the way out in New York City. It could be me taking the MTA or the LIRR like upstate to— or to Long Island. Or it can be maybe me be— me being able to eat like breakfast someone bought me, and they're driving, and I'm not driving. It will be absolutely perfect.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. I mean, I gotta say I agree, but that's a high risk choice you made there, man. Bagel—
Eric: But it's— I have like—
Brandon: —bagel can fall, coffee can spill, movement?
Eric: But, like, the coffee is like incredibly wrapped in, like, cellophane.
Brandon: Oh, that's true. They do that in New York.
Eric: And like— and big— and like big straw. And also it has to be a bagel cream cheese and nothing else on it because it's like a block of cream cheese.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So it's not gonna drip.
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Eric: Like it's— it's very compact.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. I didn't realize it was iced coffee.
Amanda: And could it even be like an airport bagel, like the— the type of bagel? Is it not— it's like the— the quan— the quality of the bagel is less important than, like, the context and fact of it?
Eric: No. Airports are for like— the only thing that's cost-effective at an airport is drinking— drinking alcohol.
Amanda: Fair.
Eric: So it's like if I'm gonna have a bagel at an airport, I'm like, "Goddammit. Why was this $27?"
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: "I'm so upset."
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: What about spending $60 to get into the Delta Lounge, Eric? Isn't that cost-effective?
Eric: That is cost-effective—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —because Amanda has 17 credit cards, so I'm allowed to get into the Delta Lounge.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Or if your flight is delayed and you have to purchase a meal in the airport, you're— you're— it's probably going to be better to just get a day pass to the lounge.
Eric: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I don't think that's true anymore actually, not the Delta lounge.
Amanda: Really?
Brandon: Because it's like— I think it's 50 bucks now for guests and you can't get a guest in unless you—you just can't get a guest in.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: Like, you have to--
Julia: That's silly.
Eric: See, this is what happens though, is that if a guest isn't allowed, I'm going to sit like a little puppy outside of the Delta Lounge and then Amanda brings in a cup—
Brandon: Well, that's cost-effective.
Eric: —and smuggles—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: —in as many egg cups as she can into the— into the cup that she has--
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: We saw that happened live at the airport.
Eric: It was awesome. And then I ate so many sausages.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: Julia, how about you, food activity pair?
Julia: Yeah. I think it's like— I guess I'm like in still, like, the same mode that we were just talking about. So, like, swimming at the beach, exhausted, come back on land, cold beer, cold cut sandwich.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: And as we know, I'm not a big sandwich person.
Amanda: No.
Julia: But sandwich at beach with, like, bag of potato chips or like cheese doodles, and also a beer after being exhausted. And, like, half drying in the sun—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —is like perfect.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: That's amazing.
Brandon: You introduced me— but I forget what we were doing now. But you took us to a sandwich place once and now I'm remembering it. On— was it on Long Island? I think it was Long island— on Long Island, 'cause I think we were going out to your parents' place.
Amanda: Yeah, I think because other people eat sandwiches.
Brandon: Though, I think you're a sandwich hypocrite, Julia.
Julia: I'm not a— I'm not a sandwich hypocrite. I take— like, I'm very specific about the sandwiches that I eat—
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: —and when I want to eat them. I don't go out and, like, think like, "Yeah, what can I get? I guess a sandwich." Like, no, that's not—"
Brandon: Sure, sure.
Julia: It requires certain circumstances in my mind.
Brandon: I got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Would you say you're a sandwich— a sandwichocrite.
Julia: No, I wouldn't— I would not say that's.
Eric: [mumbles alternates to “sandwichocrite”]
Brandon: Let him cook. Let him cook.
Amanda: Let him cook. Let him cook. He's simmering.
Brandon: Let him layer.
Amanda: Let him cook. Let him cook.
Eric: No, no, no. That was it.
Amanda: Thank you. Brandon?
Brandon: Yeah. I mean, there's a lot— there's a lot of them. I think— obviously, like, the classic is movies with, like, popcorn and candy.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Juila: Hmm.
Brandon: I prefer Reese's Pieces, but you know, other people can have their candy of choice.
Amanda: Do you mix it in the popcorn bucket or you keep them separate?
Brandon: I will mix them in my hand and eat it.
Eric: Fair.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: But I don't like to— because I feel like their densities are different, for Reese's Pieces specifically.
Julia: Right.
Amanda: Yes, they are.
Julia: They end up at the bottom and then you're like, "Meh."
Brandon: Yeah. And then my fa— one of my favorites is like— and I'm not— I'm not a huge live sports fan or a huge, like, hotdog fan necessarily. I like both those things.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: But there's something about a combo of a night game, a night baseball game and a hotdog and/or nachos, that's just like—
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: And an open air stadium, of course.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Sure. Sure.
Amanda: The hotdog in a baseball stadium was among my top answers as well. It's—it's so good. Maybe it's because we're talking about airports, there's something about, like, the salted mixed nuts or tiny pretzels on an airplane. That feels right. My sister and I would always order, growing up, a ginger ale and a cranberry juice, and then mix them in our cups, in slightly different ratios.
Julia: Chaos.
Amanda: And so the like ginger ale, cranberry juice. These days, I might, you know, throw in a mixer if I'm drinking on the plane, and then like little salty snack is— is so pleasing to me.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. I— I don't know what it is, but I love the fuck out of airport— or airplane food, not airport food. But, like, getting a meal on an airplane, it's just like the best.
Amanda: It's joyous, it really is.
Eric: It feels crazy. It's like, what future tech am I in? Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I feel like a little, like, kindergartener sitting down at the cafeteria table, going like, "Give me my plate, give me my plate."
Julia: I truly cannot remember the last time that I had a meal on an airplane, so—
Brandon: Yeah. You cannot relate.
Amanda: Mostly international travel these days.
Eric: Amanda, I was really surprised that you didn't give this answer, and maybe I'll give it for you. Because Brandon did bring up food at— in a movie theater. And I would have thought— because it combined your two favorite things. One is little plates of stuff and two, crime.
Amanda: Small crime?
Eric: Small crime.
Julia: Social hacking.
Eric: Yeah. So I thought you would've paired—
Brandon: Eric, do you want to make me upset again? Are we just gonna talk about Amanda doing crimes in movie theaters?
Eric: Yes, we are.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Amanda's smuggling in the most elaborate stuff possible into a movie theater, I thought would— and then you eating it, I thought would've made your list.
Amanda: You know—
Eric: An entire charcuterie board in the movie theater.
Amanda: Those are very notable food memories, but honestly, because there's such a good Chinese restaurant near our go-to movie theater—
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: —we'll typically eat that before or after a movie. And so I haven't been doing as much sneaking as I'm used to.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Dang.
Amanda: So I'm gonna get back on the— back on the horse, you know?
Eric: One last heist, one last job.
Brandon: You found Jesus.
Amanda: Just one last one, and it certainly will break me.
Eric: Brandon, it's one last job. Shh.
Brandon: I hate it. I hate it so much.
Eric: Shh. Don't worry about it. Shh.
Amanda: Eric, here's a question hot and fresh from Mixelle91, "What will be your next ice cream adventures? And for the others, what do you want Eric to make you?"
Julia: I already requested this in person, but olive oil sea salt ice cream, please.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I send you the— I have the Salt and Straw obviously recipe for that if you want.
Amanda: Ooh. Hell yeah.
Eric: Yeah. You can send that to me. That'll be fun.
Brandon: Eric, we got to make sister creams, sibling creams.
Julia: What is it?
Amanda: What the fuck is that?
Eric: What— what is sibling creams?
Julia: What the fuck are you talking about?
Brandon: I don’t know, I’m making it up right now.
Julia: That sounds gross and I don't like it.
Brandon: We— we both make ice creams that—
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: —are— are separate by an entire country, but they're together.
Eric: But they're same. And then we can sing about them—
Brandon: Or complimentary.
Eric: —like— like Fivell.
Julia: Like Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap.
Eric: Somewhere, eat some ice cream, out there. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I'm— I'm feeling really good. The most recent batch that I made last weekend came out really good, and one Julia Schifini has had it, so she can tell you it was really good.
Julia: It was very good.
Eric: Yeah. I made tahini chocolate chunk, which came out really good. I got some like—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —fancy milk from the fancy grocery store. And they had like cream on the top of the bottle and I'm like, "Ooh, what am I, a milk man? Like, the milk man's gonna fuck my wife. That's crazy." And then Amanda's—
Brandon: Your wife is right next to you.
Eric: —like, "No, no. Lactose intolerant." But— so that came out really good. And also the sorbet that I made, I made like a strawberry sorbet that came out so good. And me and Amanda, and two of our friends just like ate it all up because you're supposed to eat it fresh.
Amanda: Like, standing around the ice cream maker.
Eric: It was so good.
Julia: Damn.
Eric: And like, yeah, strawberry sorbet and we put a ton of white balsamic glaze on it and some chocolate chips.
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: It was really good.
Brandon: That sounds really good.
Eric: So the thing— I have two flavors that I'm going to make next. Also, I want to shout out make— get this ice cream maker. It's good. It's so good and it— it's— it's so much better than the cheap ice cream maker you can get. Just— just— just get it.
Amanda: One with a compressor instead of the frozen mold.
Eric: It's the mid— it's the middle one in— on Wirecutter, the middle choice.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So there's two that I want to make. One is pumpkin. I saw a pumpkin recipe in the Ben & Jerry's recipe book and I want to make it because I always make pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. And it has like bourbon and maple syrup and stuff in it. But what— mostly the thing that we always do is because I don't— I don't fuck with baking the crust anymore because it just doesn't make any sense, but we've been— I found chocolate graham cracker crust a lot, so I want to fold in chocolate graham cracker pieces.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Nice.
Eric: Or even the pie. I might just take the pie and — and didn't mess it up.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So I'm— I'm going to do that.
Julia: Like Portillo's—
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: —where they give the full slice of cake.
Amanda: Oh, like the— the shell, like the premade shell of chocolate graham cracker pie. You can just like, you know, shatter it and just fold it in.
Eric: Yeah, just like shatter it, mess it up.
Julia: That sounds really good.
Brandon: May I suggest you take a graham cracker crust, a regular one, freeze it, and then— and then like magic shell or chocolate so you get both the chocolate and the graham crackers—
Amanda: Oh, shit.
Brandon: —bits?
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Like, you know, just mix it.
Amanda: It's like chocolate coated graham cracker.
Eric: Oh, that's a really good idea.
Amanda: That's a great idea.
Eric: Yeah, I'm gonna do that. So I'm gonna do what Brandon said, I'm gonna do that. And then there is a mimosa sorbet recipe in the Ben & Jerry's book that I've been lusting after the entire time. It's literally just like a cup and a half of orange juice, a cup and a half of champagne, and like a little bit of sugar.
Amanda: Should I make that for tomorrow, for our friends?
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: How?
Amanda: And then bring it down to them.
Eric: No, because the sorbet should be fresh, so no. The thing I said in the beginning.
Amanda: Oh, shit. That's right. Alright, alright alright.
Eric: So I—
Brandon: You— you can have sorbet not fresh, it's fine.
Amanda: It's so good fresh, though.
Eric: No, no. And it— and it like— it literally— it really does not taste the same whereas—
Amanda: It froze a little weird, the first attempt.
Eric: Yeah. So—
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Yeah. You do have to add some like corn syrup or something to keep it soft.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: So I— I— I'm going to do that. I think it's gonna be good.
Amanda: Delish.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Brandon, any— any request for what your sister cream is going to be? Coming soon to TLC.
Julia: Please stop saying sister cream.
Brandon: Sister cream. I'm gonna— I got the Van— Van Leeuwen book for my mom, for my birthday— I mean for Derek Jeter’s birthday. We celebrate—
Amanda: At some undisclosed point in the last 12 months, Brandon did have a birthday.
Brandon: We celebrate Derek Jeter's birthday in this house.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: So I'm going to make my favorite ice cream, is probably the Earl Grey from them—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Ooh.
Brandon: —because it tastes like fruit loops and it's so good.
Julia: Nice.
Brandon: So I was thinking— I don't have the Earl Grey on me, but I have a bunch of teas, like high-end teas. So I was thinking about experimenting with that base recipe but—
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Brandon: —some of the various teas I have. So—
Eric: They're always experiment—
Julia: Like a hibiscus one would be really good.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: They're always experimenting over at Sister Creams. It's crazy. Hey, you— oh, wait, did we tell you the Van Leeuwen news that's happening near the office?
Brandon: No.
Eric: Okay.
Julia: They opened a scoop shop, right?
Eric: No.
Amanda: Ish.
Eric: Oh, Julia, it gets crazier.
Julia: Oh, no, you did tell me, but share with Brandon, please.
Eric: So near the office, next to the laundromat that turned into the restaurant called Laundromat, next to that—
Julia: Jeeze.
Eric: —Van Leeuwen is opening up a scoop laboratory. A— a scoopatory.
Brandon: A scoopatory?
Eric: Yes, scoopatory. And like they're gonna do wild shit in there.
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: And they've been very cagey about it our local, like, microblog Greenpointers reached out to Van Leeuwen and be like, "What is this?" And they're like, we're gonna do some really special stuff there. Don't worry about it."
Amanda: I hate this voice.
Julia: Don't like that.
Eric: So it's like—
Brandon: I love it. It's great.
Eric: I— it's just like gonna be experimental stuff. I—I've been— there's been some experimental kitchens for, like, Shake Shack before that I— I've been to. It's like in the West Village, so I've been there.
Amanda: Chipotle has one, right?
Eric: Chipotle, yeah, has— used to have one in New York— in New York City as well. And I've been to those, and— and they're cool. But here's the other thing, we also saw that there is now a social media content creator position for Van Leeuwen that's opening up. And we're like, "Oh, LOL. That's so funny." But here's the weird thing, you need to live in New York City, preferably Brooklyn, to get the job. So I wonder if they're gonna keep doing incredibly wild stuff at this new scoop shop, which is, again, two blocks away from the office, and they're going to make content out of it, so it's going to be even crazier.
Brandon: Oh, I bet.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: You know that—you know, Van Leeuwen is based in Greenpoint, right? Like, that's where they started.
Amanda: Yeah, their original scoop shop is the one in our neighborhood, and it's so tiny.
Eric: And it sucks. It's so bad.
Amanda: It's tiny. It sucks.
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Amanda: Yeah. People— like you— you can't get a lot of service there, so I bet this is like their R&D lab content home.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, exactly.
Amanda: And it's like literally almost within eyeshot of the studio. It's so close.
Brandon: The— that sounds awesome. I'm very excited. Next time I'm in New York and visit, I'm gonna— we— we should go there.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Oh, for sure.
Amanda: And Van Leeuwen's vegan cookie cream caramel crumble, whatever, vegan ice cream is my favorite vegan ice cream ever. So if that recipe is in there, Brandon, that can be a sister cream.
Brandon: I'm sure it is, yeah. I'll look it—
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: I'll look at it when we get— when we—
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: —get off. But the funniest thing about that book, though, as I was reading through it is that it— it's Van Leeuwen, so it's extremely fancy. It's beautiful colors and, like, beautiful photographs. There's just so many white people looking so happy in this book.
Amanda: Like a West Elm catalog.
Brandon: Like white girls with freckles just looking so Anthropologie.
Julia: Damn.
Eric: And I think it's fly when the girls walked by with Van Leeuwen, and their ice cream. Van Leeuwen is so expensive now, too.
Amanda: It's so expensive.
Eric: So like I was so out on Van Leeuwen because I got the ice cream maker. And now it's like, "Here's our R&D department and it's two blocks away from where you work." I'm like, "Goddammit."
Amanda: Shit. As soon as I thought they were out there, they pulled me back in.
Eric: You absolute motherfuckers.
Brandon: They pulled me back in.
Amanda: Exactly. Alright, folks, here's a great question from Sebalicious. "What TTRPG gaming systems would you like to try after Campaign Three? Not a promise, just ones that intrigue you."
Julia: Interesting. One that I want to try, but I don't think would fit well with our whole thing, is that like Pride & Prejudice one.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Do you know which one I'm talking about?
Eric: Yeah, Good Society. Yeah.
Amanda: Totally.
Julia: Good Society, yeah. I think that would be like very fun to play, but I don't think it would be like fun for us to do on microphone.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah, it's a little— it's a little extended. It's— it's really odd, because it's like Good Society was in the beginning of, like, the boom of independent tabletop RPGs. And like, oh, you can make lyric games and you can make role-playing games. So there's a lot of like— it's— it's both incredibly roleplay-heavy, but also incredibly fiddly. Like, there's so many—
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: —little like a epistolary tokens and, like, qualities that you need to assign to people and you fitting into Austenian archetypes very, very pat. So—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —I listened to Friends at the Table do it. And I know there's been some other games that have been inspired by it. I know they shoved it into a— a season of Dimension 20 At some point. But yeah, it's like— it's— it's interesting. Like, you're both trying to do something that's extremely what you want it to be. You want it to be a Jane Austen novel, and yet, like, there needs to be all this like capital G, Game stuff—
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: —layered on top of it.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: So it's like both— it is— you need to like have an imagination and be an actor, and be super plugged into gamesmanship, and care deeply about Jane Austen novels.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: I mean, I think you just described us, Eric, so— specifically me. So—
Eric: Yeah, you're— you're all four of those, my man.
Brandon: I'm a best Actor. I love Jane Austen.
Eric: I know. You were so good voice acting in all those video games. I can— living in LA did so much for you, and I'm so glad—
Brandon: Yeah, I know.
Eric: —you pursued your dream.
Brandon: I'm so poor now.
Eric: Oh, man. I'm very— I'm very interested in Kids with Capes which is the new game from the Kids on Bikes people. I really like Kids on Bikes. It's a very interesting system and— and pretty rules light. I wonder— the veering into Kids with Wands, what is that one called? Kids on Brooms.
Julia: Kids with Brooms.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Kids with Wands is really good, though.
Eric: Kids with Wands. It's like— I— I think that they get—they did the same thing I just described with Good Society. It's almost like they got too caught up in Harry Potter to, like, really let the— the game breath. But I'm wondering since there's so much more, like, stuff to do when we're talking about superhero stuff, I'm very interested to see when that happens. But of course, my heart is with masks, always with masks. Like, if we're gonna play kids— superhero kids, superhero teens, it's— it's gonna be masks. But no, there's some other stuff that I've been kicking around. And of course, like, I'm running my own game, so I'm feeling pretty cool about that.
Amanda: Hey.
Eric: Hey.
Brandon: I guess— I guess it means that we're gonna have to play the children of our Campaign 2 characters, so—
Eric: Hmm. Yeah, but it was— I mean, I don't want to bra— I don't mean to, like, talk out of school—
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: —because it's your character, but like—
Brandon: Right, right.
Eric: —you did say Milo canonically could never fuck.
Brandon: Yeah, I did.
Julia: Oh, interesting.
Brandon: That was— I did delete that from the podcast, though.
Julia: Oh, okay.
Brandon: So, like—
Eric: Oh, well, I put it back.
Julia: Yeah, we checked the tape, it's not there.
Eric: Oh, I put it back. Did you not notice?
Brandon: Oh, I didn't.
Amanda: We're— we're on the feed right now.
Eric: It was in the first episode, you said it really clearly.
Amanda: Folks, here is another question from Mage Silverleaf. "What is your favorite type of art to observe?" Which I thought was a wonderful question, and something that we may not always touch on. Art to observe.
Brandon: Oh, wait. Observe is an interesting word. Yeah.
Amanda: I—
Julia: Well, I think it's like— yeah, I— go ahead, Amanda.
Amanda: No, I was gonna say like I— I don't think it's my favorite type of art to consume, because that would probably be reading. I think games are really beautiful, and I like watching people play them and playing them myself. But I— I really love like a site specific art installation. You know, like, big sculptures in, you know, a big sculpture park, like Storm King here in New York. Every summer, the Metropolitan Museum of Art commissions an artist to make art specifically for their roof. And so, like, one year, I met my cousin there, and it was like a gothic house. One year, it was like a— a maze of mirrors. And I feel like I don't fully understand it, but that's sort of why I like observing it, because I can walk into a place and it's like a light installation, or like one of those rooms in museums where like projectors are doing cool things. And I'm like, "Wow. This is really interesting and making me think of my relationship to space." And it's not a feeling I often have.
Eric: Have you been to the room in New York City that is filled with dirt?
Amanda: No.
Eric: Oh, you should go. It's in— it's on Wooster Street. It's just down there.
Amanda: Is that the like the underground garden path thing?
Eric: No, that's a different one. I have also been to that place, it's cool. But no, David Roth, who is the host of The— The Distraction show that I— I produce. He just wrote a blog about it over on Defector and it's just a room, it's an apartment in a building in the West Village, and it's just filled with dirt. It's—it's sick.
Amanda: That sounds up my alley. Let's go.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I think you should—you should take some seed packets there and just like slyly throw them in there.
Amanda: Nightmare, nightmare.
Eric: Brandon, that's literally called terrorism. Which— which explains it. Good— good suggestion.
Amanda: I do love a small crime.
Eric: Yeah. How be— I wonder how much crime— I guess that crime would grow, because—
Amanda: Yeah. And it's like, am I culpable for the—the crime I committed or the consequences of the series I set an action?
Eric: Hey, Supreme Court, can you get on this case, please?
Amanda: Hey.
Brandon: Julia, what kind of art do you like to observe?
Julia: Theater, I think.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Especially like interactive theater, like I'm getting a lot more into that. And like I would also say that interactive theater aiding to the point of where it becomes basically a haunted house.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: Fair.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: That's—that's the kind of stuff that I dig.
Amanda: Very Julia.
Brandon: Eric, I cut you off, so what were you gonna say?
Eric: No, just more about the Supreme Court. Julia, where— where— what is the line of haunted house? Like, where does something become more— less X and—
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: —more haunted house? Because I don't think—
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: —it's the screams. I think it's about like with the door locks behind you. That's I how I felt about Sleep No More, where it's like, "Oh, I'm in a haunted house, even though it's just like weird guys going like this all over the place. Even if you're not white, you didn't hear that. Maybe you heard it in my voice. But it's like, I think that the door closing behind you, I feel like was the— was the thing that really brought me in to that kind of line.
Julia: You know what? I honestly wouldn't even say that, because I think 90% of the haunted houses that I go into, no door closes behind me.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: You know? So, like, I don't— I don't know what the line is.
Brandon: The door— there hasn't been a door here in 40 years.
Amanda: Nice.
Julia: I think it's more— I think the line for— and this is such a like, you know, nitty-gritty differential, but—
Brandon: Werewolves.
Julia: —the line for what makes a haunted house a haunted house versus like interactive theater is, like, the actor hitting their mark or hitting a cue as opposed to like—
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: —actually interacting with the audience member. Does that make sense?
Eric: True.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: It's like choreography of, like, screams or events versus, you know, "Oh, like this character is like Lady Macbeth and she's just gonna, like, walk around looking weird.
Julia: Yes. But, like, that's also the thing where it's like I just said that that actor has a cue, which still makes it feel like theater to me.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: You know what I mean?
Eric: Sure.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Even like— even if the cue is just, like, jump out and scream, you know?
Amanda: Fair.
Brandon: Hmmm.
Eric: Yeah, I really like this performance of Macbeth. I wish there were more screams. I wish there was more chainsaw.
Julia: Hey, I think that's true.
Brandon: There's a lot of screams in Macbeth.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: You know? Mostly for me as I watch it.
Eric: Being like, "Wha— just figure it out!"
Brandon: "Communicate!"
Eric: "You're gonna figure out why the wood moves. It's not a secret. It's not a riddle. Have you heard of C-sections? Come on."
Amanda: "If you know anything about childbirth, you can put two and two together. Come on."
Eric: Oh, God. We saw a Macbeth that was so bad, so I keep— I keep thinking about that whenever—wherever—
Amanda: You have to cleanse the palate with another production.
Eric: I know truly. For—
Amanda: Brandon, did you have a— or did you—sorry, Eric, you didn’t go yet.
Brandon: Eric didn't get to go either, so yeah.
Eric: Hmm. I mean, video games is certainly one up there. Video games and TV are the ones that I'm really— I'm really there for. I think it's nice like knowing that something can be stupid, or straightforward and still be, like, in the same thing of art. I feel this way about action movies, like being part of the— the film oeuvre, but like I'm just not like cinaphile like that. I really do like TV more than like— more than movies. So it's kind of nice being like, "Oh, I'm gonna watch, like, my sports stuff, but also I'm gonna watch The Bear and that's like on a continuum, somewhere is— somewhere in between." And I can think about that in a similar way, because it's like ongoing production, seasonal stories, seasonal storytelling, et cetera. And yeah, I mean, I just like video games, man. Video games are great.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: It's not—it's— it is really nice. It— the video games are like the line where it's like, "I don't do this, so— and I have moved back from talking about them." Not only because video game journalism is, like, so fucking confusing right now. And it's like zero sum game if you haven't— if you didn't like work at Game Informer for 10 years already. But— so it was kind of nice like not— having like whatever criticism I have, lower key, capital C, Criticism of games—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —is like, I can keep it to myself and it's just like a thought I have. And it's like a little independent thing, instead of, like, participating in a content creation thing, which is a different kind of, like, you know, art viewership, like the question is— is supposing.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: I agree with all the TV stuff. I— I— that's probably my favorite thing to consume in general. I think— I ju— I really like just go into art museums. I know that's like boring, but like— especially like painting museums and— or like sculpture stuff, like very classic museum shit. I very much enjoy. Yeah. I don't know. That's— that's it.
Eric: Do you have like a not world famous museum you had a good time in?
Brandon: I mean, I— I think I don't know what the line of world famous is, but—
Eric: Not like the Louvre or like—
Julia: Or the Met.
Eric: Or the Met, yeah. That's pretty much it.
Julia: Or something like that, you know?
Brandon: Yeah. I mean, like, there's a lot of museums in Paris that were amazing. The— the modern one, I think it's like the— something with a P, modern art one. It was amazing. The Musée d'Orsay. The Musee— the water lilies one, I forget—
Amanda: De l'Orangerie.
Brandon: Yes. Thank you. Was amazing.
Amanda: You know, the obscure Paris museums.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: That's what Brandon is into.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I mean, that's fair, honestly.
Brandon: Well, that's what I'm saying. They're world-famous, too.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: I literally meant any—
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Any painting museum other than the Met and the Louvre.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: My favorite Paris museum was I got to the Louvre too early and one of their, like, outbuilding museums was open before the main Louvre, and it was the like, art and design and furniture museum. And so it's built like a gigantic Z, where like each—each— you know, inclined plane have like a ramp of the museum, like the whole museum is a ramp. And so you proceed through human history from, like, early cave dwellings to now. And just like—
Julia: Cool.
Amanda: —see how furniture changed.
Brandon: That's cool.
Amanda: It was incredibly metal. It was so good.
Julia: Can we— can we shout out some other, like, cool, but weird museums that y'all enjoy?
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: Sure.
Julia: My— my, like, real suggestion one is I think a lot of people don't appreciate the Cloisters, which is—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Oh, the Cloisters is so good.
Julia: —the, like— the, like, medieval branch of the Met, that's like, all the way north in basically like— in Manhattan, in, like, Harlem area, and it's fucking beautiful. It's— it's like you walked—
Eric: It's like in the woods.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. It's like you walked into, like, the woods in New York City, and then a, like, monastery is just there for some reason.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And they, indeed, airlifted a monastery from Italy or France or some shit into Fort Tryon Park in the Bronx, so they—they did it.
Brandon: I've only been during the winter, so I would recommend not—
Julia: You have to go during summer.
Brandon: —doing that.
Amanda: Yes. In summer, they have like a— like a poison garden and an herb garden, and like esplanade fruits.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: —fruits. It's very cool.
Julia: And then my other suggestion is if you're ever in LA to go to the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
Eric: Oh, sure.
Brandon: Oh, yes. I heard of it.
Julia: I will not describe it any further than that.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: You just need to go and observe it.
Amanda: It's a little weirdo.
Eric: Yeah. It's smaller than I thought it would be.
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Eric: I t's like you think, "Oh, that's gonna be an all-day thing." And then it's like 30 minutes and you're like—
Amanda: It's like a store.
Eric: —"Do you want to go to In-N-Out?"
Amanda: Sure.
Julia: I— I spent a good, like, hour and a half in there and— and had a great time. For sure.
Eric: Uh-hmm. It might be different after COVID, TBH, because
Amanda: It's true.
Eric: Or maybe we went too close to the— to 2020.
Amanda: Hmm, yeah. I don't remember exactly.
Brandon: I'd love a Natural History Museum. That's one of my favorites, the Science Museum. I don't think it's really art necessarily, except for like the— you know, there's occasionally some art stuff in there, but like—
Amanda: Diaromas and stuff. Yeah.
Brandon: I just love the Science Museum. So yeah, the— the National Museum in New York. We went to the— I forgot what it's called, but like the main— we just got back from Prague and the main, like, Prague museum, like the official one or whatever, had like a big, old evolution wing. That was very cool.
Amanda: Cool.
Brandon: Yeah. I love doing those things.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: Yeah. For a museum I really like, I think that you should go to a taco place and just kind of look at the El Pastor meat cone.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And just observe that for a little while.
Brandon: Yeah, it's beautiful.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: What a— what a fusion of human innovations.
Eric: Yeah, I'm being like, "Wow. I can't believe that 5'2 man with the knife could get the little— could get such deft pieces of pineapple off the top of the al pastor.
Amanda: So far above his head.
Eric: He— he's so small.
Amanda: How he do?
Eric: I know. Manuel’s crushing it.
Amanda: Truly. On a first name basis with the— the Pastor guys at our local taqueria.
Eric: Yeah, shout out Manuel.
Julia: Naturally.
Amanda: Here is a wonderful question that I felt very touched by. This is by Ginger.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: "Is there a childhood memory that looking back was a good indicator of the kind of adults you would be? Like creative, bossy, silly, et cetera." And maybe it's because there's new lives coming into the world any minute now of Brandon's new nephews. But does something come to mind for you all?
Brandon: I have lots of bad memories of anxiety and—
Amanda: Sure.
Brandon: —and depression.
Amanda: That's definitely the tone.
Eric: Good, Brandon. I— I was gonna say like, "So I was in— I was coming back from summer camp in 5th grade, and then my parents said they were gonna— getting divorced."
Amanda: Well, shit, guys. This is not really what I invited you over—
Eric: Brandon started it! I wasn't gonna do it. Brandon started it.
Amanda: —into my Conversation Pit to do.
Eric: Brandon started it.
Amanda: But we can go there.
Brandon: Two babies, he's gonna be a— he's gonna be a—
Amanda: Two babies, two babies.
Eric: —Grungle.
Brandon: Oh, here's a— here's a good one. I remember going to— it's on like— yeah. So I remember going to my— some of the first music lessons that I ever took were for drum, for a drum kit. And I was like— I had to have been like third grade, really young, and the guy that I went to was the nicest man on the planet. Super great drummer, great guy, but he was like fully tatted up.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: And I was really young and just scared of everything, so like the idea of like learning music and learning to get over anxiety—
Amanda: Aw.
Brandon: —with the scary musician man.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I love little Brandon with tattooed drummer man in 2002. I love that.
Julia: Good combo.
Brandon: It was great.
Amanda: Yeah. It's like, "In 4 years, I'm gonna be a ska teen."
Julia: That's awesome.
Amanda: Juls, Eric?
Julia: I have a lot of memories of being an only child playing in my backyard by myself and just, like, making up stories.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: So I think that feels like a good indicator of the kind of adult they turned out to be.
Amanda: That's really sweet.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. I gotta think of mine. Amanda, do you have?
Amanda: A lot of— a lot of, like, coming up against the human limits of how many library books I could carry home. And in— in kindergarten, I presented a petition to the— the librarian at my elementary school, because kindergarteners had their own, like, picture books that were like, you know, appropriate reading level, that they, like, put out for kindergarteners to choose from. And I was like, "No, no, no. I read that, and that's for babies. So, like, I— I need access more. "And then she was like, "Amanda—
Brandon: Anna Karenina.
Amanda: Yeah. And she's like, "Well, Amanda, like you're not— you know, this is kindergarten— kind— kindergarten books." And I was like, who do I have to talk to you? Like, do I have to get signatures?" And so, I— I had a— I had— I wrote up a letter. I got my parents to sign it, saying that they gave permission, and then talked to my teacher.
Brandon: That's so funny.
Amanda: And she was like, "I guess." And so I brought it to the librarian, and the librarian is like, "Shit. Whatever. Fine. Like, go read." And then she, like, literally, like, pulled back a rope to allow me into the section of the library with other books. And I was just like— there are— like, again, what felt like thousands of books with, like, shelves going up to as far— as I could see, in reality, probably a few 100, where I was like, I" haven't read a single one of these." And it was just like the—
Julia: That is so cute.
Amanda: —world opened to me.
Brandon: I went— speaking of a library memories, in— before I went to Stephen F. Austin Academy School for the gifted and talented.
Julia: And the Charles Xavier School?
Amanda: The Charles Xavier Talented Boarding School, yeah.
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: I was at just like a regular old school, and in kindergarten or first grade— I— I think I switched in second grade. So those two grades like— my teachers would— just for me, would just give me all of my work for the day in a packet and just say, "Here you go," and I'd finish it in like 10 minutes. And then they would say, "Alright, go to library." And so I spend 7 hours in the library at school.
Eric: That's so funny.
Amanda: Ideal.
Julia: Cute.
Eric: Let's see. Oh, I have one that my mom tells all the time. She really likes this because it involves— she really likes telling any story that involves her, like, yelling at customer service.
Amanda: True.
Eric: This is a similar type of story. When I was in fourth grade, I was reading a book and they— I was inside during recess and I was reading a book because you were allowed to do that. And then at some point, the bell rang and the class started. And of course, I was just like sitting at my desk, reading a book. And at some— the way my fourth grade teacher had told it was that he said he tried to get my attention multiple times, and then I got lunch detention for reading during class. And what did I do during lunch detention? I picked up the same book that I had had before and I would just kept reading. So when my mom— so when my mom tells this story, she's like, "Wait a second. So you're telling me"— and you imagine— you can only imagine, it's 1998.
Amanda: Eyeliner is blue, the hair is curled.
Eric: Yes. My mom is like nose to nose with my fourth grade teacher like, "So you're telling me that you gave Eric lunch detention for reading, and then the entire time he was reading during lunch detention. Now, do you think he learned any lesson from that?" And I'm like— I'm like, "These are scary stories to read in the dark."
Amanda: So cute.
Eric: So I like that story.
Brandon: I love that.
Eric: It's pretty funny.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Julia and I also made trading cards of the Greek gods based on like a big encyclopedia in the elementary school library.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: Facts.
Amanda: And I remember like— I don't know whose scotch tape we took. It— we had to use, like, two rolls of scotch tape, but we, like, laminated it—
Julia: It must have been—
Amanda: —with tape at our— like over recess one day.
Brandon: That's really cute. I love that.
Amanda: And that— that sticks with me.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: And now you can buy those tarot cards on—
Amanda: Basically.
Brandon: —spiritspodcast.com/merch.
Amanda: Spiritspodcast.com/merch. Exactly.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And—
Julia: Thanks for the plug, Brandon.
Amanda: Thank you. Finally, here's an invitation from Mixelle 91, which I thought was a— a wonderful way to end which is, "Is there just something you want to tell us about? Something on your mind?"
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm. The thing that's been on my mind for the past two days— or at least a day and has been there— I'm anxious about it right now.
Amanda: It's been like 20 hours.
Brandon: No, not that.
Amanda: Oh.
Julia: Different thing.
Amanda: I assume—
Brandon: That— that's all fine.
Amanda: It was the babies.
Julia: Brandon can be anxious about multiple things at once.
Amanda: Okay.
Brandon: That's all fine. Everything's going fine.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: She's fine. My blueberry plant has— all the leaves have turned red and I— because I have not— I did not put it in the right soil acidity and so—
Julia: Oh.
Brandon: —I repotted it, but then I realized that the like soil acidifier is gonna take too long, so I need to go out and find specifically acid azalea, whatever, hydrangea—
Amanda: Hydrangea stuff, yeah.
Brandon: —soil, and I can't find it anywhere.
Amanda: No.
Brandon: And I don't know what to do.
Amanda: Can you use like citric acid or like a diluted cooking acid?
Brandon: I don't know that that works, though. I don't know. Yes, I probably could, but I don't know.
Amanda: Because I know some hydrangeas—
Brandon: So I'm panicking about it, Amanda.
Amanda: I'm sorry, Brandon. I'm sorry.
Julia: Yeah, that sucks.
Eric: Have you considered that your blueberry is a shiny, and it's super rare, and that's why it's red, like a gyarados?
Amanda: Aw.
Brandon: Oh.
Amanda: That's really cute.
Brandon: I like that. It's gonna become a ghost Pokemon.
Eric: Yeah, but he's a variant.
Amanda: Julia?
Julia: All I can think in my head is, "All the leaves turn red, all the leaves turn red."
Amanda: "Turn red. And the sky is gray."
Eric: "And the sky is gray."
Julia: "No blue— no blueberries for Brandon."
Eric: No blueberries for Brandon. Now I'm crying all day.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: It's pretty good. I— I have a fun fact that I want to share with everybody about the Donkey Kong family tree.
Amanda: Oh, thank you.
Brandon: Oh, my God.
Julia: I saw this in the comment.
Eric: Yeah. In the Multitude Discord, which you guys can all join if you go on the Multitude website. It's super easy getting there. The que— we have a question of the day channel and someone asked about who— one of the questions was, who your favorite Mario character is? And they were talking about Don— and of course, I was talking about Donkey Kong. And Rue who used to be our community manager was like, "Wait, I thought Mario and Donkey Kong were enemies, especially all— going all the way back to the original arcade game." And here's the thing, this is canonical. The Mario—
Brandon: Donkey Kong.
Eric: —from the arcade, he— that isn't even Mario, his name is Jumpman. It's just another dude. It's not even Mario.
Brandon: So then his name is Jumpman Mario?
Eric: No, his name is Mario Mario.
Brandon: Well, I didn't know that, which is insane, by the way. Yeah.
Eric: Which is also insane. But it might—
Julia: Is Jumpman Mario his— his dad or grandpa?
Eric: I don't know.
Julia: Have we considered?
Eric: I'm not sure. I— I need to look into that because I don't know it on hand.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I thought it was a different guy who was Jumpman or maybe it was just his nickname. It's fine. Maybe it was just like part of his job.
Amanda: Cool.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: But canonically, this is a real one, is that the Donkey Kong from that game, the original Jumpman game is the— is Do— is our current Donkey Kong's grandfather—
Brandon: Right.
Eric: —who is known as Cranky Kong in the Donkey Kong Country games.
Amanda: Wow.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then Donkey Kong—
Brandon: I learned that in— sorry.
Eric: And then Donkey Kong, Jr. is Donkey Kong's dad, which also— it was an arcade game.
Amanda: That's crazy.
Eric: And then there's Donkey Kong, and then Diddy Kong is Donkey Kong son.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Interesting.
Eric: I also learned that Kong is not a surname, it's a species name. So that's why they're all named Kongs, even though they're not all— not all of them are related, because there is a family tree—
Julia: Ah.
Eric: —element of the whole thing, but they just don't have last names.
Amanda: It's not their patronym.
Eric: Yeah. It's just like their name and then— I guess it changes, too. It's kind of like a nickname because Cranky Kong was the original Donkey Kong.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And now he's Cranky only now that he's old.
Amanda: Is Donkey Kong a title?
Brandon: Well, I would argue that he was pretty cranky in the original video game.
Eric: That's fair. That's very fair.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: He was throwing barrels everywhere.
Eric: Donkey Kong's grandmother, Cranky Kong's wife's name is Wrinkly Kong.
Brandon: Yup.
Eric: And I feel like she wasn't wrinkly her entire life.
Julia: Aw.
Amanda: That's also—
Julia: It's like how Scar in The Lion King— you're like, "Did you name him Scar? Did his name change when he got a scar? That's kind of fucked up."
Eric: Julia, if only there were some sort of prequel to tell us what was going on then.
Julia: Okay. Wait, hold on, a full aside. I went to a 10:15 showing of Inside Out last night.
Eric: Oh, boy.
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: And I was watching the previews—
Amanda: How are you doing?
Julia: I'm doing great.
Amanda: Okay.
Julia: I was fine. I was in bed by 12:30. It was perfect. It's a tight 90 movie.
Amanda: It is, it is.
Eric: Very good.
Julia: But— but I was like sitting there watching it and I'm like, "They're really making a fucking Mufasa prequel? What the fuck is this shit?"
Amanda: They are.
Eric: It's so stupid.
Amanda: They are.
Eric: It's so bad.
Julia: Geez. Yeah.
Amanda: Anyway—
Eric: That was my fun fact.
Amanda: We don't really know.
Brandon: Are they related to— are they canonically related to King— King Kong?
Eric: No. Well, that's what I'm saying, is they're not, because Kong is— Kong is a species.
Julia: It's a species.
Brandon: Sorry, I should say, are they the same species as King Kong?
Eric: I can only assume so, yes.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Because, obviously, Donkey Kong, it's an English version, the Japanese guys giving an English name to these dudes. For example, Mario was named after the American lawyer of Nintendo at the time.
Brandon: Oh, yeah.
Eric: So it's like— it's the naming is all janked up. And like Donkey as like a— being like a playful enemy, that's why they named him Donkey Kong. So—so yes, the— but it's all— it's a little all mixed up because of the— the languages.
Julia: Can I share with you a fun line from the Wikipedia?
Eric: Sure.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: "Though the protagonist was unnamed in the Japanese release of Donkey Kong, he was named Jumpman in the game's English instructions and 'little Mario' in the sales brochure."
Eric: Just like—
Brandon: Little Mario.
Julia: Little Mario.
Eric: Just like 4 out of 12 of your second cousins, Julia.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Incredible.
Brandon: This is little Mario, this is medium Mario, this is big Mario.
Eric: And this is also a Little Mario who's big Mario's dad.
Amanda: Yup.
Brandon: This is cranky Mario.
Julia: Yup.
Eric: It's a— it's a species.
Julia: Man, the guy who— who they supposedly named him after, first off, was the— the landlord who was like, "Give me the back taxes." But just— just looks like a real, like, guy who would demand back tax.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: So funny. That's so funny.
Amanda: That's fair. That's fair.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Not to change subjects, but Amanda or Julia, do you have anything you'd like to share?
Amanda: Yeah. We've been thinking about. Was that your— Eric, was that your fun fact that you—
Eric: Yeah, it was my fun fact.
Amanda: —you happened to talk about? Hmm.
Julia: I don't know. Let me think. Let me think about it.
Amanda: I have— I have really been enjoying gardening on my fire escape. It's not allowed, but I'm doing it. The cucumber plants are thriving, and they have little tendrils that they poke out to, like, you know, make themselves affixed to, like, a trellis.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: And it's crazy, those little tendrils grow like almost visually, like they grow inches and inches each day.
Brandon: That's wild.
Amanda: It's— it is wild. So that's been really fun. But no, nothing— nothing else in particular.
Julia: Oh, I told you guys, but I want to tell the audience. I went out yesterday for a little—
Brandon: To see Inside Out.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: No. But before that, I went to a friend date at a restaurant, and I had a true Tuesday night at the restaurant situation, where the bartend— or not the bartender, but the waiter sat down when he took our order and was also like, "Do you see how crazy it is because it's Taco Tuesday? Our— our manager, he won't bring on more people." And I'm like, "My guy, thank you for sharing this with us. This is great."
Amanda: Aw.
Julia: And then he only charged me for the burrito and none of the sides that I ordered, so—
Amanda: Wow.
Eric: Wow.
Brandon: Oh, that's nice.
Amanda: Love it.
Eric: Cute.
Brandon: Was he flirting or he just, like, liked you guys?
Julia: I have no idea.
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Eric: But I would—
Julia: Brandon, I— I have been married for 6 years and in a relationship for, I think, 15.
Brandon: A 100?
Julia: So I don't know when people are flirting with me anymore.
Brandon: That's fair.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: If it's not after school at theater, how is Julia supposed to know?
Amanda: I know.
Julia: If he's not kissing me, how do I know?
Brandon: Well, even that is difficult, because everyone at school after theater is flirty with everyone.
Eric: That is true. That one is true.
Amanda: And kissing. And kissing.
Julia: And kissing.
Brandon: Yeah. It's hard.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: That's very true. We've also been hitting up the Farmers Market a lot and getting like Farmers Market— like it's just— the produce is so good. It is so much cheaper than like the shit stuff at the grocery store. And so Eric and I have gotten like pretty much as much produce as we— as each of us could carry. Like, several, several pounds of like incredible lettuce, and like radishes, and carrots, and bok choy, tomatoes. It's been awesome.
Eric: It's wild getting iceberg lettuce— one, it's funny getting iceberg lettuce from the Farmers Market because you feel like it comes out of the ground, wrapped in cellophane.
Amanda: Exactly.
Eric: But it's so— it's so good. But also like these are bigger than what's in the grocery store and it's cheaper. Iceberg lettuce is like $3 at the grocery store and it's like 2.50 from the Farmers Market. It's honestly— it's honestly crazy.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: That's a good grocery store. In the expensive ones, it can be like five bucks a head for iceberg.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Which is like crazy.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It's just like whatever—whatever stuff they have. But yeah, shout out to Farmers Market.
Brandon: I— the reason I know that I have— I mean, the coffee ghosts are— are good is that if either of us suggested to— to the other one that we buy any type of lettuce, we would say, "Are you fucking insane?"
Eric: Or, "Have you been kidnapped?" Is— is your code word.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Our— our trick is to use it pretty much right away. We're doing a lot of big salads recently with like—
Eric: Shout out Big Salads.
Amanda: Love Big Salad. Love you, best friend. Like something creamy, something crunchy, something acidic, and just like chop up a whole bunch of vegetables, and then, you know, portion them out over a few days. But the lettuce, if you use it in the first few days— and actually, this is a good tip. We have this thing in the US called a green saver bag. I saw it recommended in like the—
Brandon: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: —comments of, like, King Arthur Baking post or something. But they're incredibly helpful in extending the shelf life of produce. It's just like a— a bag that is more or less porous than regular plastic. And you can reuse them, so we— we make the lettuce— we usually eat it in like two, three days.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, I— I have a whole thing about salads because I think that a salad is like 20 ingredients for it to be good. So it's like I'm gonna have to spend 30 minutes making this big salad and it might as well be 50% Farmers Market products if I'm going to be doing it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I think salad needs to have a bunch of cheese to be good. Cheese and then bread.
Eric: Oh, I agree. That is one of the ingredients, Brandon. 100%. I get—
Julia: I— I— I think I have created the perfect Caesar salad recipe.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: Gimme.
Julia: And I'm very proud of it.
Brandon: Gimme.
Julia: You— gimme? I—
Brandon: It's the only kind of salad I usually eat.
Julia: I use a mix of Boston and iceberg lettuce. Two different type of crouton.
Brandon: Two?
Eric: Oh.
Julia: I buy—I buy— like from the store, I get like little croissants and I chop those up into little cubes, and then I air fry 'em.
Amanda: Whoa.
Brandon: Ooh, so sweet ones.
Julia: And then also panko bread crumbs in a pan with some butter—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Julia: —and lemon zest.
Amanda: Classic.
Brandon: Hmm. Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Julia: And then I make my own Caesar salad dressing. No anchovies, I use miso instead.
Brandon: Oh, that's smart. I haven't tried that.
Julia: And I add more lemon than one would typically require.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: So it's like a very bright, lemony but also very umami savory Caesar salad.
Brandon: I dig it.
Amanda: Hell yeah, dude.
Brandon: I’m into it.
Eric: Me so hungry for that salad.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Folks, thank you for joining us for today's Conversation Pit. Eric, ending us on a perfect button as always.
Julia: Interesting.
Amanda: Everybody, thank you for your understanding and presumably well wishes to Brandon.
Eric: It's because it was the mis— the word miso—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —sounded like you wanted it.
Brandon: Hold up. Shut up, Eric. Amanda said, "Presumably well wishes."
Amanda: I'm presuming people are going to want to leave their well wishes for— for you and your sister. I'm not going to send the—
Brandon: You're like, "There may be people who are—
Amanda: —the evil eye—
Brandon: —like, "Fuck you."
Amanda: —toward the babies.
Eric: Hold on, wait. I'm getting a news bulletin.
Amanda: Oh.
Eric: Brandon's nephews have superpowers. They're X-Men.
Julia: Oh.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: Oh, no.
Julia: Interesting, interesting. It happens to the best of us.
Amanda: Damn. I didn't realize it was really July in Lake Town City in 1989, but here we are.
Eric: They came out of the womb going, "Shirnk."
Amanda: I mean, pretty much.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Tight. But yes. No, thank you all for your understanding and— and for letting us have a good Tuesday in Conversation Pit form. We will see you to talk about all of your opinions and answers to these questions in the Join the Party Discord or the Multitude Discord, which as Eric mentioned, you can join at multitude.productions/community. Also a good time to plug that we're doing our annual summer survey. So if you have opinions—
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: —about things like what game system we should play and how important it is to the podcast and the story that we play certain game systems over others, let us know.
Eric: Don't know if you've heard, but Dungeons & Dragons is gonna get really weird soon, so—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —we're— we're definitely looking at other games.
Amanda: Your survey feedback is what helps us feel like you would be stoked when we did Monster of the Week for the Camp-Paign, which I remain such a fan that we're listening to every summer. So your opinion really matters to us, and that's at multitude.productions/survey.
Eric: Yeah. Episode— the link in the episode description, yeah?
Amanda: It is.
Eric: Yurr.
Brandon: Yurr.
Julia: Yurr.
Amanda: Fantastic. Well, thank you all for joining me. I hope you enjoyed your frozen grasshopper slushies, the liquor, not— not the— not the snack, those are chocolate covered, and in the kitchen for anyone who wants those.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: They're actual like cra— crickets?
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Amanda: They're delicious.
Julia: Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.
Eric: I would rather eat chocolate covered crickets than creme de menthe, honestly.
Amanda: Yes, me too.
Julia: Damn.
Brandon: No.
Amanda: Me, too.
Brandon: No.
Julia: No, no.
Eric: No, no, no.
Amanda: We have something for everyone here at Multitude, no matter where your food opinions lie on the axis of unhinge to traditional, we have you covered.
Eric: On a scale of '70s tricks—
Amanda: Yup.
Eric: —to bugs as future food—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —what— where do you think your foo— your food opinions lie?
Amanda: That's the Z-axis, Eric. Time. Alright. Thank you all for joining us.
Brandon: Bye.
Eric: Bye.
Julia: Byee.
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