210. Yoop Yoop Yoop!

AlexThis is Do By Friday, a weekly challenge podcast. This week's challenge, something, something YouTube playlist.

Hello, you just gave me such a good compliment. You said it was very strange. And I agree. I was just saying that you should give yourself some slack because you were talking about that explicitly yesterday. What? You were very...

MerlinWhat is happening right now? What's happening? What are we talking about?

AlexDon't interrupt me. Don't interrupt me. Yesterday, you did a program called Back to Work that some people might be familiar with. And it made me feel the way I did in like when I, oh God, high school, who the fuck even knows? Time's an illusion. You talked about giving people slack right now because it's so, so fucking hard. And I don't know who needs to hear this. And I'm sure everybody is, you are hearing it. josh gad is telling you everyone's literally telling you but if you are listening to this

please please fucking vote i am not excited to vote for biden i'm not but like this is a fucking team sport it's it's a fucking team sport it's a team sport if if you care about me at all please vote. My family, as small as it is, it might not be able to exist in a few years. I literally got married because I was so afraid of what was going to happen four years ago. And it feels really

weird talking about this because I am very white. I am very privileged. And someone very close to me recently said, one of the biggest problems with white allies is we're terrified of sounding incompetent, but that's what like Republicans do anyway. But why? So why are we so scared? Cancel us. Whatever. It's I don't know. Like people are Republicans and a lot of people are still going to hate you, even if you are a straight white woman and a good person. That is

just how it's going to be. So please, please vote. You are hopefully a good person hearing this. and stop letting people i don't i want people to stop telling me how to feel and i want other people to just feel things it's okay be fucking sad it's snowing in chicago but yeah whatever happens can't give up so i'm a little fired up today merlin it's okay they relate i'm sorry i'm

sorry i'm late yeah yeah yeah oh boy how you doing merlin good

Merlinthe interesting thing is well one of the interesting things is i can't tell if i'm way better or way worse than you. Or neither.

AlexI want to explore this and pull in this thread.

MerlinFirst of all, I would like to respond. I have a response, which is thank you, because did you ever listen to that? What we're talking, I think what Alex is talking about here, in as much as I can tell, Alex has important messages, and I'm glad that you, thank you for your message. I totally agree. I agree with all those things.

AlexThank you for listening to my TED Talk. Sorry for interrupting. What?

Merlinhow does one navigate this conversation um what the fuck did i do what's happening

Alexi was making a reference to the wire with our delay could you make a could you honk like a

Merlingoose can you honk like a goose when it's okay for me to speak i i okay hold on this is actually

Alexthis might actually be a delay issue as well okay dropbox isn't sinking i've got bunch running Dropbox isn't sinking. Box isn't sinking. What is, why are you going so slow? Internet, come on. Come on. All right, please proceed. I apologize. Sorry for interrupting.

MerlinI'm sorry. What did you want to say?

AlexGo ahead. Go ahead.

MerlinThat just sounds nothing like a goose.

AlexNah.

MerlinI think what, thank you. I think, or a geese. I think what Alex is talking about is yesterday's episode, Back to Work, which I have to say was really important to me. And I know you're not congratulating me. you're congratulating a concept, but the concept is suddenly extremely important to me. And the reason I wanted to do the last half of Back to Work yesterday, I'll put it in show notes, is that I heard this wonderful podcast over the weekend, a podcast of a radio show I've listened to for years called To the Best of Our Knowledge. Long story short, it popped up in my overcast,

and I knew instantly that I needed to listen to it soon because the title of...

AlexThe title, yes.

MerlinThe title of the episode is Everything is Exhausting. And so they talk to four people about what it is that's so uniquely exhausting about this particular time, which seems like it'd be real easy. Like you could kind of nail that in two and a half minutes, but there's a lot to it. And also some ways to just think about doing stuff differently. And the thing that I was saying, my addition to that, somewhat of an addition, part of maybe a paraphrase, is like there's so many benefits to going easier on yourself, right?

I mean, this is not the first time I've said this, but God, it's so true now. And what that made me think is, and I'm sorry, I'm just repeating what you said, but like, you know, we spend so much time wound up about what other people will think about us. And we get so wound up with making sure that we don't disappoint a stranger or that we hew to their idea of who we are. And like, fuck that. I need to be reminded sometimes. We don't want to be a terrible person, but the way to not be a terrible person

is to not tacitly agree to change your personality based on every exchange, real or imagined.

AlexJust fucking try. There's so much to be said for trying. And people are afraid to try, and I hate it. I hate... I tried so fucking hard.

MerlinOur side of the aisle, politically, our side of the aisle, it's it's just there's there's no bottom to the disappointment in terms of like even if we just set aside for a minute dude your fucking job is to fight hard not simply as a member of congress for example but also as a person who represents a party that supported you and you know gave you the job gave you the opportunity because like we need you to be a wartime consigliere now and if you're not up for that move the fuck aside like you know it's like chuck schumer going oh boy

Like, oh, boy, Trump's going to be sorry he did the Barrett thing because, boy, are you going to – or, like, people going, sir, doing like a Keith Olbermann. Like, you know, oh, Mr. Trump, sir, or, you know, Mr. McConnell, sir, your legacy, sir, will be a legacy of shame. And it's like, you know, I almost wish that McCarthy hearing guy speech had never happened because I think it's it's it's made us want to make people want to think that they can like white knight their way into saving the country through saying fancy words.

Yeah, I hate it. I hate it. Fight fucking fight harder, you bitches.

AlexWe're literally your bosses. It's such a cliche thing to say, but it's true.

MerlinI mean, well, I mean, it's also a little bit of Canadian girl. It's a little bit of Canadian girlfriend where it's like, oh, don't worry. What did Nancy say? Is it Darth? No. Who keeps saying this? Yeah, Nancy, you said you got a lot of arrows in your quiver. Could you please go get all of your quivers and all of your arrows and fucking do something? Pull every stunt. Every single stunt. Do it all. Try it all. You have to do this. You're like, it's like fighting an alligator and hoping you can get them to agree to some rules about how the fight's going to go.

But it's too late because you've already lost an arm and a leg and maybe part of your head. Well, believe me, what you did was very undignified. Oh, fuck.

AlexI mean, I'm not asking people to go out into the streets and punch a Proud Boy because they terrify me. Good God. But we've tried going high. We've tried playing by the rules. And everybody, I think, is so much smarter than four years ago. I would like to think if I am not smarter, I'm I hope that I get better every year and I hope I am a better person to the people in my life every year.

And that means changing and we can't keep fucking doing this.

MerlinWell, it's it's it's also that like I think I think one on our side being the.

AlexAnd this time, though, it does. It is. We talk all the time about how there should there isn't or often isn't in us versus them. they have clearly made it in us versus them. So how about we don't do it within our own side of the aisle or whatever? Sorry.

MerlinOh, thank you. Thank you, Goose. The one thing here is that I think a, maybe I'm just imagining this, but I think an implicit fallacy of our side is, well, what they're doing is wrong. You know, we're not going to do the kind of terrible things that they do. And I've got to say 80% of me absolutely agrees with that. There is a little part of me that thinks, hmm, maybe you should use some of their tactics. That said, what I'm saying to you is get creative.

I'm not saying you have to go sully your image as a statesman or statesperson, statesday. I'm saying you need to get creative about how to fix this problem. I don't know how to do your job, and you theoretically do. So fucking get it together and help, you know, save the people. Jesus Christ. I don't know. Now you got me. I came into this very philosophical and now you got me all fired up. And I'm, you know, sad. Sad? What am I? I'm something. I'm exhausted.

AlexI don't know who needs to hear this, but other people are exhausted too. Fuck you. Like, are you that upset that your Twitter feed is filled with sad people? Like, what?

MerlinThere was a good post yesterday on political Twitter yesterday or the day before that just really kind of encapsulated this feeling. And it was like, you know, so imagine a typical like two-person conversation, right, with colons. And it's like, you know, something like when Republicans are in power, it's like, you know, hey, you know, elections have consequences. Like when Democrats are in power, the Republicans say, hey, you know, just, you know, you shouldn't capitalize on this pendulum swing.

You should be collegial. And then Republicans are back in power. Elections have consequences. Like repeat forever.

AlexYou know what I'm saying?

MerlinLike this, it's.

AlexWell, yesterday, I think there was a dog pile on Jennifer Lawrence because she maybe voted for McCain or something. And I'm like, well, I was literally a child. She said she used to when she was younger, she used to be Republican. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Guess what? Middle class white women are pretty much the majority are Republican. And it sucks. Hopefully a lot of them aren't anymore. But it's been the default for so many people I know for my whole life because it was really I'm not saying it was ever great. But like, you're not getting anywhere by going, oh, if you think this is something new, you haven't been paying attention. It's like I have been paying attention, dude.

MerlinIt's just that you can only really make dinner with the food you have. You can't wish you had a different house with different food. Like what you've got is, as they say, this is the hand that we're dealt. Now, how do we get creative about that?

Yeah, I don't know. It's funny. One of the things I wrote down on the list here, though, is like, maybe you can help me remember this. So we'd done Top Scallops and then a previous podcast with Max. And then we decided we wanted to do a new thing. We were coming up with this. And a couple of things I remember, and my memory is so bad about this, I don't know why. One thing I remember is, didn't we, like, in the beginning, maybe I'm thinking of Yolanda's today, but I feel like in the beginning there was at least one or two or three episodes we didn't air.

AlexYes, but then there were also...

MerlinBut we're thinking, do we want to say, maybe we should not start doing and releasing the show until after the election. I feel like it was an early conversation. Am I right about that?

AlexBut then all of the polling said Clinton's going to win. Like, go Hill Dog go. Including me. I was super excited. Yeah, that was your fight song. No, they ruined such a stupid bad song that I secretly love, which is not so secret anymore. But this show became something different after Trump was elected.

MerlinBut just to close the parentheses on that. So I think we had two shows before the election, and I was trying to look today, and I think the Amazon Send Each Other Stuff Challenge might have been the first episode that aired after the election. Does that seem about right?

AlexIt is. I went back and looked, actually, too, because I was very curious.

MerlinBut think about that. I mean, it's not precisely a bookend, but it'll do for now. It's interesting because, well, let me state the thing I'm trying to talk around, which is this show started like right when the election was happening, when the election was wrapping up. And for four years, we've done this show, 210 episodes of this show. And it's all but two of those episodes were during that, during those times.

Trump's been president for all but two well, sorry, he was sworn in in January, but you see what I mean it's just weird to think about, the thing I put in the notes here was like is this the end of an era? depending on the next episode that we record and air it feels like a week from now feels like I don't know what's going to happen I think I know, I hope I know but even if what I hope I know happens, it's not going to be pretty either way

Alexit's going to be hard either way And I think we need to learn and accept that. Like, even if there is a blue wave, which whoever came up with that stupid red wave, blue wave, it just sounds fucking stupid. I'm sorry. I apologize if you came up with that. But I hope that this is another.

MerlinAlas, I used to enjoy your program about boners and butts and vaginas and slicing off boobs. and I used to love that program, but alas, I can no longer listen to your program for I am the inventor of the blue wave.

Farewell to my Friday. I bid thee well, but not very well. Signed, Blue Waveline.

AlexWant to start the show? Jake's like, oh, I know you don't. Well, I don't know if you read like the Patreon exit surveys.

MerlinOh, Jesus Christ. No.

AlexOh, Alex, please. No, no.

MerlinWhat are you doing to me?

AlexNo, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There are.

MerlinYes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

AlexNo, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Reverse honking. Oh, I broke my throat.

MerlinNo, I just geased you. You're free to speak. And just so our listeners know, we are having probably an unprecedented level of latency. So if it sounds like we're talking over or under each other, for once, we actually are having a very, very bad latency that will not be reflected in the recording you hear because we each record separately. But just so you know.

AlexI'm just quitting all the browsers now and opening the notes in my phone. I don't even remember the words. Oh, I look at the Patreon exit surveys. Some folks need credit card help or, you know. But the best exit survey was, I think the extreme left has destroyed the show and it's not as fun anymore.

MerlinI've stopped supporting Patreons for that reason.

AlexI was like, go ahead. Go ahead.

MerlinThank you. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for your message, Alex. That was great to hear.

AlexI don't know. It made me happy.

MerlinThis is not my all-time favorite review, but it's very close to my favorite review. And I want to say 1985 or 1986, there was a quote-unquote supergroup. Supergroups were very popular in the mid-'80s, and it was usually aging prog rock people or aging metal guys or whatever. And there was one, and the main players in it were, if memory serves, Steve Howe from Yes, who's really good, and Steve Hackett from Genesis, who's also really good.

He virtually invented the hammer-on technique.

AlexOh, shit.

MerlinAnd they had a record together called GTR. And the review in one of the guitar magazines I used to read at the time, all it said was, it said GTR, it had the album cover. It said GTR, band, GTR album. Here's the review. SHT.

It's so funny. GTR review. SHT.

AlexThat's good. I like it. I like it. Oh, boy. How is your iced tea? We're starting in an unprecedented maybe five minutes late because, you know, you triggered me when you said you were having iced tea. and it would be a second. I do that? Yes, yes. Okay. Actually, whenever Maddie can say to me, I am going to go take a shower

and then I instantly need to pee, but it does not, because we only have one bathroom and I don't know, I'm a shy peer. But when we were out into the world doing things.

MerlinYou're a shy peer.

AlexOh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

MerlinYou didn't seem like a shy peer when you barged into the restroom at the live recording of, excuse me, when you barged into the men's restroom. Cutting line, if memory serves. You barged in and walked straight in.

AlexNo one was using the stall. No, no, no. There was a line for the urinals. No, no.

MerlinI'm sorry. Oh, okay. Yeah.

AlexI really had to pee.

MerlinAnd so any mention of liquid does that? Or can do that?

AlexYes. I don't know why.

Merlinno i mean i well uh uh uh uh i don't talk about this too much but i have uh uh i have a chronic health condition that has been in remission for many years but long story short uh i was at a point in life where it took very you know i'm already pretty panicky but it took very little to make me very panicky because of the idea that i might not be able to get to a bathroom and I believe me I know what that like the idea of so basically your life becomes about that you

become like somebody one of those terrible msnbc commercials where you you're developing moderate to severe merlin man and like it's it just the suggestion that basically anything could happen in the world your first thought is will this impact my ability to be in a bathroom doing what I need to do within about 20 seconds it makes it really gives you a lot of focus in life and not in

Alexa good way no so i'm sympathetic uh well don't be don't be sympathetic to me but what you just

Merlindescribed don't you don't don't you don't you tell me what to do i'm speaking my truth don't

Alexdon't you feel feel bad for me don't have feelings don't don't feel anything about me uh but but that is the life uh that's actually the life of of most trans people who don't quote unquote pass it's a constant

Merlinyou don't want to get clocked as they say

Alexyeah it's like there's always man this is a big old Alex episode but you know when Matchy and I are

MerlinI had so much content I have so much content to talk to you about today

AlexI'm going to set all of it aside no no no stop shut your god you're so annoying today

Merlinspeak your truth what I'm saying is honk I'm getting out of the way You run this outfit. It's your week to drive. I'm getting out of the way. Forget about Dickerson, Pencil's types of lateness, Merlin's weird watch thing. Is Merlin unintentionally thirsty? A very good gear bag to show Alex. Don't forget all of that. I want you to speak your truth. But I need you to be way nicer to me or I will probably.

AlexNo, no, no. You're being... I don't think... Well, okay, that was mean. I was going to say...

MerlinNow you sound like a songbird. Bumberg.

AlexBum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. oh i'm a level one pokemon right there go ahead go off queen go sorry go off they go off they okay the one the one feeling people can't have is correct oh okay never mind back in a way back

and away from that uh what what questions were you gonna have about dickerson pencils actually because this is somewhat a little bit relevant uh hold on i apologize i think my i think hold on i think dougie might be calling me sorry alex i came into this program today feeling very very

Merlinphilosophical. My opening salvo to you was going to be that I'm feeling very philosophical. So this suits my mood very nicely. Now the important part is I set aside that I not be ego assertive with you about my philosophical outlook. I want to clear the runway for you. I'm going to grab those big orange popsicle lightsabers and I'm going to clear the runway for you. Boop, boop, boop. I don't know why I'm backing up, especially because I'm not in a car and I'm standing in front of a plane. In any case, boop, boop, boop.

AlexBoop, boop, boop. Boop, boop, boop. I do speak bocce.

MerlinIt's like a second language to me, sir.

AlexOh, boy. Okay, I mean, the Dickerson pencil actually has... Oh, that was a pop.

MerlinDunkey's coming over. We might get an appearance from him.

AlexOh, okay. There we are. Um, why can't XLR cables be fine?

MerlinWhat's he, what's he, if I can ask, what's he coming for? Is there a stated reason why Dougie's coming? Is he going to look at your table or whatever? What's he doing?

AlexHe wants to check on the locks, which, cool. Okay.

MerlinCheck, check for what? That there's still locks?

AlexI don't know. I just wanted to get off the phone as quickly as possible.

MerlinOh my God.

AlexI mean.

MerlinAt least, at least you get, you get calls. Our, our, our, our whole experience is so much weirder.

AlexThis is the first time he's ever called me.

MerlinJust people will just show up at the house and go, they sent me over to measure the floor. I go, huh? Yeah, he sent me to measure the floor. This is after three weeks ago when someone showed up and said, he sent me over to fix your sink. And we said, our sink's not broken, but we could really use some help with the floor. Guy came up, different guy. That guy comes up. He says, yeah, you got a lot of problems with the floor. Okay, bye. And then the other day, a guy shows up at nine in the morning. No call. No call. No warning. No anything. Different guy. Guy we've never seen. Oh, hi.

I'm a stranger. I need to measure your floor. And so I don't know. I mean, who knows? So basically, in the same way that the floorman could just show up unannounced. And he was apologetic. He's like, yeah, that's how he works.

Yeah, so I guess at any time somebody or somebody could show up to do something to our floor, but we will never hear about it. Now, our locks, I don't know. Our locks are very old. I mean,

Alexthat's why I panicked.

MerlinBut extremely powerful. Our locks are very powerful. Do not try to come in. Do not breach by my perimeter.

AlexAt this point, I'm kind of like, whatever. With locks, come on in.

MerlinCan I capture that, though? So maybe after our special election extravaganza next week, maybe you can tell me what happened with the locks, if you got any insight into your locks.

AlexWill do. Will do. The reason that I'm panicking about it is because I often don't get a call, which is uh i don't know maybe i i don't know oh that's a wonderful way to live that's such a

Merlingreat way to live uh well i constant constant concern of will you or will you will because neither one's good you get a call ha ha you get a not call ha ha ha you know it's not great monsters they're all monsters who lives like that what if i just started fucking showing up at your house and saying i need to do something to your house well this is my house so yeah well that was

Alexmy house too it's just 20 years dude let let let me take on the character of many grandparents including my own why don't you just buy a place it's the market's great now why don't you just buy a place you can just buy a place no do you need to buy in the place honey honey honey honey

Merlindo you honey do you know about mortgages did you know that you can buy a house slowly

Alexthat sounds really interesting see then you're putting the money to into something you own

Merlinwill they accept fear and use tampons as a down payment

Alexplease leave they oh well well uh hey hey if you if you want me to to buy a condo in chicago You can go to www.giveusyourfuckingmoney.com, which is our Patreon page. And that is where you can indeed give us your fucking money. And you'll get a...

MerlinOh, and then when you decide to leave, you can also give us notes.

AlexMost of them are actually very, very nice. It's also anonymous. So you can say...

MerlinI'm sure they're very nice. But Alex, you missed the point. It's not whether it's nice or not nice. The point is, to quote the great Dave Eggers, that's not for you. And it might be for you because you're covering that aspect of what we do here. And I appreciate that. But that is not for me.

AlexExactly.

MerlinThere's very few things that will improve by me finding out through someone's captive attention of me what they think of me. It makes life feel like an intervention. I hate it.

AlexYeah. No, you would literally get nothing out of it except like you would make a Pokemon noise.

MerlinWe're very different, you and I. You like these kinds of things. No, I don't.

Alexfeel like or you you oh i i i used to like these kind i used to like these kinds of things because i put a lot of stock in what other folks thought about me and now i again i hope i am less like that in 2020 than i was in in 2016 but also i want to make sure that people got their you know decks of cards or whatever or can yeah absolutely absolutely the rss feed for people uh breaks all the time oh oh sorry what you get for backing our patreon is an entire second show where i'm even

Merlinlouder yeah if you enjoy hearing us bitch about your support you know you can hear more of that

Alexlater and uh if you gratitude takes many forms let's be honest and uh i'm gonna put the you know asterisk of it's it is a tough time like you know like don't i don't know if honestly the the worst part of reading those is like i'm so sorry that i can't support you and i'm like dudes it's okay it's okay it's really nice it's sweet when people say that yeah um but but no i don't read itunes um or itunes excuse me jesus christ apple podcast reviews anymore yeah yeah

Merlinwell yeah was that phrase uh to quote myself emotional terrorism it's a kind of it's a form of emotional terrorism.

AlexThat's a really good... Oh, wow. That's a... Huh.

MerlinI dropped a lot of pretty good science. You know what? You guys, listen to our show. Give us your fucking money. But go listen to that episode. Not just because it's one of the best episodes of that show I've done, in my opinion, but the stuff that I'm talking about is extremely important. And like Alex said at the top, I think. It's very important content there. Unintentionally, it was kind of about talking about COVID, and then it kind of became about life, which is, you know, when you're philosophical, like I am right now. That's how that works.

AlexThat was the thing I disagreed. The one thing where I shouted no at that episode is when you stated that this is just philosophical.

MerlinFor most, yeah,

Alexyeah, no, no, no, most people, including me, that's real life. It is. You gotta think about it all the time or you get real fucked. So

Merlinyeah i it's just there's there's like you know there's this thing that's bothered me personally and professionally for a really long time and i i talk about it more than i should which is terrible because the people who are nominally there to you know hear about productivity or whatever i just can't i can never get away from this and it's ever since the well even obviously beef even before the how to wash your dishes life hack, I've been really, really personally and professionally bugged by people who can't be

asked to like check out the philosophy behind why we're doing this rather than just how to do this. Like one of the huge problems, setting aside the addiction that feels useful to life hacks and productivity tips, that's kind of why I got out of the racket. It's also that you're never, you wouldn't need all of these tips if you adopted a better philosophy. Once you've adopted a better philosophy, when I say philosophy, I really in some ways mean an outlook or that phrase I like to use a lot, how you think, or like how you see, how you think,

how you decide, how you do. That kind of stack of how you get from one to the other. And if you run a trace through that stack, you're going to probably notice where things are falling short. And I think a lot of the time it's because we start with some kind of flawed idea about why we're doing what we're doing. And so if you don't have a persuasive theory about why you need a life hack for soaking your dishes, I mean, this is a really, really bad analogy. But if you're in Catholicism for the free bread, you're not going to meet Peter, if you know what I mean.

You know what I mean? So if you don't understand whether you agree with it or not, there's a lot to understand about why we do this, why we sing this way, why we kneel here and not there, right i mean and that like i said that's an imperfect analogy but that's fucking life man there's so much stuff in life where if you've not really never thought about your motivation and the motivation behind your motivation the the you know slings and arrows of outrageous romance that brought you to be how you are if you don't interrogate that it's gonna be you're gonna just

be lucky if anything goes well for you and that's that's that's why when i'd say i'm not disagreeing with your disagreeing but i'm just saying like if you don't get the philosophy stuff right like how will you know if you're doing the right thing how will you as stephen covey says know if your ladder is against the right wall you get the fanciest tallest strongest ladder in the world but like if that's against the building that you don't need to be getting into then what's the fucking point

Alexdoes that make is that a fair defense yes i uh am preparing my apple notes apology now because you were talking about philosophy i think in the truest sense and not like a david foster wallace esque liberal college major type thing oh i majored in philosophy probably i could use a better word probably yeah no one should major in philosophy or poetry that that's not a hill i will

Merlintie on it's just an opinion wow and that's why why is that uh because it's dumb i don't know

Alexstupid how many how many poetry classes you taking out how many poetry classes have i taken uh three

Merlinand what was dumb the classes dumb or just the major oh or was it the poetry itself that was

Alexdumb oh no the the poetry was lovely uh i mean i'm oh this is gonna be like the gayest thing i've ever said i prefer spoken word to poetry well that's gonna be i wouldn't don't don't

MerlinAll right, check your ass can't catch.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand. Surely the second coming is at hand. The second coming! Hardly are those words out. When a vast image out of spiritus mundi troubles my sight. Somewhere in the sands of the desert, a shape with lion body in the head of a man,

a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun is moving its slow thighs while all about it, real shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again, but now I know that 20 centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, and what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born.

AlexOh, jazz break! Oh, that was so good! Fuck! Oh my god! Wow.

MerlinSorry, Second Coming by William Butler Yeats. I don't know the year, but I'm going to say early 20th century, obviously.

AlexOh, no, that's real.

MerlinDon't major in it, though, it's dumb.

AlexI went to a dumb college.

MerlinWould you like me to read poetry to you? How about you do philosophical things? We'll honk in between and I'll read you poems that I like.

AlexOh, no. The thing is, I...

MerlinWould that make us boyfriend-girlfriend? Or boyfriend-they-friend?

AlexWell, you have in the notes here Merlin's... Oh, not the watch thing. I'm also having a weird watch thing.

MerlinOh, I had the craziest watch thing. I do have to tell you about that at some point.

AlexGo ahead. The after I'm going to make a note because I do feel weird talking about my fancy phone, but I fucking love it so much. And I know that I shouldn't feel weird about it. But oh, my God, I love it so much. OK, we're stop talking and just talk.

MerlinTell me about the phone.

AlexNo, but I want to hear more importantly, is Merlin unintentionally thirsty?

MerlinIt's kind of related to the challenge. Maybe we should put a pin in that. But I was thinking about, because Alex, is there one word right now that you could use to describe my state of mind?

AlexOh, hold on, hold on.

MerlinI'm going to say philosophical.

AlexI'm not fast, as you would say.

MerlinThat's the word I keep using, Alex. I'm very philosophical right now. And I was thinking, because in my discussion of something, something you do.

AlexOh, I got it. You are very passionate right now.

MerlinYeah, philosophical.

AlexOkay. All right. I'll allow it.

MerlinOh, sorry. We're looking for philosophical. What is philosophical? No, I mean, it's going to sound double, double, extra, super secret thirsty if I even ask the question. But I was thinking about why do I make playlists? And the thing that I've been telling myself, because I think I've said this to you. I think I said it to our friends, our listeners out there, is that I'm doing, how can I put this? I love projects. I like little projects. It's really been a savior for me. Little, all kinds of different projects, different kinds of things.

high-minded things extremely practical things um and that's kind of what's getting me through a lot of the day these days and one of those things that's really silly but fun is i love making playlists um for all the things but especially i mean yeah i like youtube playlists but i really like spotify playlists that's one reason we're doing this challenge is it's fun to do that but i was thinking like why do i do that and i was like do i do that because it's an opportunity for me to have nostalgia.

Setting aside the follow your nose challenge, typically it'll be something, some of my favorite playlists are just songs that somebody loves from the past, curated around a theme or whatever. So do I do that because it's nostalgic and it gives me an escape? And I was like, yeah, I think it probably does do that. And I was like, do I do it because I think my taste is great and I want people to admire me? And that's kind of where I got stuck a little bit. I'm like, you know, there probably there probably is a little bit of that to it you know what i mean yes but i don't know if it's true i want to be admired for my very good nostalgia i think the answer is it's

not thirsty it's fun because i do think if i thought people hated it and weren't interested i wouldn't do it but in some ways it's just it's yeah i want to get i want to work out and get buff because i want people to like think i'm hot none of that's true literally um but but ultimately i get in shape you know like i said i'm a kid we brush our teeth for us and only secondarily for other people and i think for me making playlists is like brushing teeth not in the habitual sense but in the sense of i do this for me and i hope you benefit from it too god that's a lot of what

Alexi do jesus christ yeah i'm feeling very philosophical right now you you just just you started with making it sound like you were going to say something self-deprecating and then you brought it back and it is what you do and you're very very good at it i i do that yes you're

Merlinyou're very philosophical thank you alex all i was really looking for today as a compliment i'm

Alexfeeling very philosophical yeah i mean you're thirsty for them uh uh i'm a first trap the ah

Merlini yep yep is donald trump jr okay is he okay i is donald trump jr i mean is he is he does he have people who are talking to him right now and trying to help him a little bit i really do you think he

Alexlike what what what kind of porn do you think he watches like is it based like i i know that these are not healthy and normal thoughts but his girlfriend's seems a little bit bonkers um i don't know if i would you should have seen her when she was uh with gavin newsom she was a snack oh my god i uh i don't she had great great frames no um i uh this is the straightest thing i've ever said not a fan of her boobs uh queen cut that out you know what

Merlinhave you seen but you're you're not hearing my mouth words did you ever see her back in the day

Alexyeah uh don't cut that out because that is a bad thing i said and i shouldn't do it again but i do not like her no cut all this out this one the show will never ever oh i i uh is Mitch is Mitch McConnell okay and I also mean that yeah unfortunately he seems to be getting better unfortunately well but is he getting better or is it or is it makeup like I would not

Merlinoh I see I I mean I don't know I don't know what the fuck was going on there um it is weird that the band so one of the band-aids makes sense so what we're talking about here is there have been photographs of Mitch McConnell having like not a Peter Pettigrew hand how would you put it more

Alexlike he's got grayscale he's a zombie yeah it's very upsetting yeah he looks like he looks like

Merlinthe sweet little girl in um game of thrones oh no oh you're right oh god you can you can you can you can you can deal with grayscale but it it's not very comfortable did you get that photo i did i don't this is not your type oh shit that's so my type look at that look at the she's professional uh that's that's what kind of porn i mean there's a part of me that thinks it's got to be the most like pedestrian 15 year old boy boobs and butts porn maybe and then of course there's the other

part of me that thinks it's about like that he likes maybe like choking or something but i don't

Alexi don't know yeah it's either perfectly benign or absolutely horrific like i can't imagine

Merlinanything in between. The thing that's driving me nuts right now is that, I mean, he does, there's something about the how and the precise way that he is unhinged right now. I'm talking about Donald Trump Jr. The precise way that he is unhinged right now really feels, I want to say drug related or possibly alcohol related. His eyes, his demeanor, his like, you know, is it, is he, is he okay in that way? And then there's the other part of me that's like, well, what if he's not on not taking the drugs it's like whoa you know i'm saying yeah i would love it what's

Alexthe occam's razor for that cat yeah i i mean i would truly i i don't know what's better being coked out or being i you know i i know that crazy is kind of like a slur right now but i don't like this fully psychotic meltdown like how how do we it's fucking let's let's avoid those words he seems like he seems a little scrambled right now yeah yeah okay more than and more than a little like

Merlini i don't know i did you did you see the one the one from the other day that me and lots of other people posted uh defending his father and and and he he he goes down so many avenues cuts himself off changes talking so fast the so the person who posted the video that i saw said uh uh what did They say Donald Trump Jr. is currently very animated. Fox News.

AlexI mean, when anyone in government does a talking head and it's less coherent than me, you know, you know, it's going downhill real fast.

MerlinOh, I see. That's the that's the Bechdel test.

AlexWhat's that called?

MerlinThe Alex exam. How do you feel about that?

Alexoh very very philosophical we we should we dig dug challenge which this week it was your challenge and i don't think we came up with a cute clever name for it which we should probably do no the the challenge is something something youtube yeah oh i like that some something something youtube uh well what did you something with youtube well if there's one word to to describe

Merlinhow I'm feeling right now, I would say it's philosophical. So I did a few practical things.

AlexI'm a little bit slap happy now, and I know that I'm in easy laugh, but I really want to make the title philosophical, and I know that you won't let me, but it's just funny.

MerlinThe title of the episode would be philosophical?

AlexNo, it would literally be I can't. It would literally be P-H.

MerlinLike a woman's name, Phyllis? Phyllis-ophical?

AlexYes, it would be Phyllis Office Cal.

MerlinAre we doing puns now? Is that a thing we're doing?

AlexWelcome to the Merlin and Alex Show. What did you something something, YouTube?

MerlinSee, the thing is, Alex, a lot of people think because I hate puns, I can't do puns.

AlexOh, no, you're very good.

MerlinThat's my secret. I'm always punning. I could pun so hard. I'm maybe not a Glenn Fleischman or a Joe Rosenstiel, but I will curl your hair just a little bit. And not the hair as you think.

uh-huh let's see what am i looking at here i don't think i made any brand new playlists in the past week but i can check oh why do they bury where's my playlist where are they oh i i had a

Alexbitch of a time with this too are are you on the home page of youtube yeah right now i'm on the

Merlinwebsite yeah okay so if you do but as with spotify they they obviously spotify and i can't say obviously but it strikes me that neither youtube nor spotify either expected or are encouraging you to have dozens or potentially hundreds of playlists it's especially spotify it's really difficult to manage and they give you can do folders but at least on my version on the mac every time i make a change apart from the content of a given playlist if i move something or if i

make a folder everything in that left rail momentarily disappears and i have to scroll to make it come back. And then you get the, it's almost an iPhone level of annoyingness to drop into a folder.

AlexYes.

MerlinSo, oh, are you going to talk about Wicked?

AlexOh, no. You discovered a new genre of YouTube. I'll save it for the show,

Merlinbut are you going to talk about that? Okay, good. I don't know. I was, I did the thing I like to do and this for me is, boy, this is a very strange thing. I don't want to say I like doing this, but I definitely find myself doing this. I am that guy who will go on Twitter and say, show less often, even though I know it's attached to literally nothing. I will do that. I will do that for all kinds of things. Please show this less often. I figure if someday they want to improve their product, they'll have data to see that I fucking hate it so much. I am also the

kind of person who goes through Spotify release radar on Fridays and diligently discover the five to 10% of songs that are a total fucking error based on namespace pollution or fraud. No, that's not Sloan. That's not Sloan. That's trap music. That's not the band Genesis. That's trap music. I know trap music and that's not Genesis. I do that. Why do I do that? I don't know i don't know i it gives me something and yes i am the sort of person who will on every platform

i think but tv os go in and say don't show me this channel anymore wait and so i do a lot of that why

Alexwhy tv os i'm confused by what on so on the apple tv i'm super frustrated that there are how can i

Merlinwith this i mean apps are hard i get it but like the functionality you can get to stuff on youtube for tvos but my sense is there's two things they there's only there's only two things they want to make easy because there's always two things with them one of the things is they make it easy to play things and they make it easy to autoplay whether you want it or not because those are the two things that benefit them if you want to do anything you got a mouse or sorry um you know swipe down is why he's wiped down it pauses for an eighth of a second even though you didn't pause

it now it's on the pause button even though you didn't pause you can go left or right to say

Alexlook at this channel do this thing hit the thumb right yep so many different uis but there's no

Merlinright there's no right click to there's no right click to do shit yep i like right clicking to do

Alexshit yes but i prefer uh the little like 30 second skippy button on ios i the trade-offs are fucking wild and that's kind of what i don't understand actually no i i understand because you're right apps are hard and that's not a priority because skipping forward 15 to 30 seconds doesn't you know help the algorithm um well by pressing the diving board yeah yeah oh boy seriously someone tell me why joe rogan is cool like oh one person just one please

okay okay i'm sorry i went on my burner account and i i was like okay let's do the i didn't i did not watch it but i was like what i went and uh put on i i've got like a youtube burner account basically that if anyone looked at it would think that i was a nazi but this this time i just did a private or not what is it called in safari oh okay i'm sorry let me translate to the listeners

Merlinwho may be as confused as i am alex has a second youtube account for watching things that uh they would not like to have uh tracked or to have uh have an impact on the recommendations and i think what alex is about to say is that they watched something with joe rogan did i get most of that

Alexright uh yeah yes except this time i did incognito mode what is it on safari i'm i'm not even sure but uh private tab and just just put on the joe rogan uh episode with alex jones and then did the auto let the autoplay happen oh yes and wow it's so dark so fast because sure that's what everybody he says yeah well no i didn't i didn't oh yeah yeah like i didn't watch the the whole thing but

Merlinwell i'm saying i'm saying i don't i don't get that i mean i got that once like i said i got that once by looking at russian dash cam videos and motorcycle accidents and trucks hitting bridges um you know like they ever seen like the camera of that uh watches the the overpass where the trucks always don't notice the sign and it shears off the top of the truck yes and and it goes from

AlexWould you like the snuff film? No, thank you.

MerlinExactly.

AlexPlease, no.

MerlinPound sign, Don Jr. choking.

AlexAll right. So you didn't do a new YouTube playlist? Do you want to share a good YouTube?

MerlinSo what you can do, what you can do that's great. I'm on the Mac right now. So, oh, God, new Monster Factory. Jim Jelly is doing gymnastics their way. Oh, my God. So you mouse over, and like so many things, people wouldn't know to mouse over. But if you mouse over the title or whatever, you get Google's beloved three dots, which is worse than a hamburger. It always means something different. In Google Apps, the three dots are everywhere, and it's basically, what is it? It's almost always like, you know, help or whatever. It's like, no, but in this case, if you click on the three dots, oh my God, look at all

the things under there. I'm telling you this, listener. First of all, pay for the YouTube where you don't get ads. Really, seriously, best money I spend every month.

AlexYep, I agree. Same.

MerlinOh my God, what a difference. If I click on the triple dots for Jim Jelly, I get six options. What? Yes, I get add to queue. I get save to watch later, which I'm always clicking. And a separate one for just save to playlist. Now, on iOS, those are the same button with an interstitial, like a pop-up. Add to queue. Save to watch later. Save to play a list. They give you a buster for not interested. The last one is report, but very important. The one that's like a caution sign. God, their design language is weird.

Don't recommend channel. Now, I'm not going to do that because I love Jim Jelly. Well, I haven't watched it yet, but I love those boys. I love the woodworking simulator. Oh, my God. um but like so so for example sometimes i watch not sometimes pretty often i'll watch uh our current president do one of his dingling rallies and i try to do that with washington post but sometimes i end up looking at fox but then what's going to happen alex i start getting recommended fox things and as quick as that comes up i hit the triple triple dots and say don't recommend this channel i'm telling you all about this you might know about this but if you want to have a

better experience with youtube you need to try and leverage some of these things it's very important i think do you do that do you say don't recommend channel um recommend a channel do you do you ever find yourself going in on a non well you i guess you could do it on tvos it's a pain in the ass do

Alexyou go in and say don't recommend this channel anymore oh well i'll actually not recently but

Merlini used to all the time because you never know what's going to set it off like all of a sudden I'll watch one kind of video. I could be watching a certain sort of video or thing about a band. And yeah, a couple things show up. And it's like, oh, that's really interesting. And then for whatever reason, there's other kinds of topics where it becomes half of my recommendations after one video. And I don't understand. They must have, like I say, algorithm. You know, let's stop saying that if we don't know what it really means. They must have some means for knowing how to best provide what they think I will watch,

not necessarily what I would like, what I would watch, but alongside what they've got stock of or what they've got the most ads for, whatever that is. Does that make sense?

AlexYeah, except for not using the word algorithm. What else would it be?

MerlinBut it's like when the president says Plasma.

AlexOkay, fair.

MerlinAnd first of all, that's not how you pronounce it, but tell me what Plasma is, sir.

AlexMario. Mario. I mean...

MerlinCarrie.

AlexCarrie. Carrie. Oh, I made it worse.

Merlindawn dawn uh he's my worst friend alex he's my worst friend it continued offline john sircusa got back to me later and he's trying to find sounds of things that i've said in the past because he wants to show me and this is understand this is coming from the man who who tells you you pronounce his name wrong number one number two he refuses to pronounce it himself and number three the thing he always says is meh i think because he's squidward meh somewhere he's got an mp3 of federico vatici saying it correctly and four he won't say it and you say like it's your

name and you're bothered by it could you give me a demo and that's exactly how he works and that's what is flying monkeys love about him he's no better than trump and he's my worst friend well

Alexdon't say that no that's uh he's more of a mccain like for contrast i have i have an lg tv that i uh

Merlini love and that has a giant remote that does things it's got first of all if you want to use

Alexit as a mouse you just move it around in the air like a wemo no i'm sorry i i uh uh go on go on i wasn't making a bullet vibe joke i let i let the remote i'm moving moving on moving on uh not everything's for you for you yes so you're waving around uh a remote and like a cursor okay um

Merlini'll tell you a thing i say to my family sometimes alex and i know i talk a lot but it's it's it's kind of how i how i operate and i'll say you know over the years i've been permitted to get fewer and fewer words into a sentence and if you keep guessing what the second two-thirds of the sentence is you know first of all you're not going to be right a lot and you're going to be so busy trying to guess what i'm about to say that you're not going to hear the amazing fucking thing i just said i i not you not you you're awesome that's my family i dislike uh you you just accidentally

Alexsaid a tagline for a uh like like the what what is it um early early to bed uh and the oh yeah anyway anyway it's a title line for early to bed i giggled i giggled at a sex toy name i i want to

Merlinhear about the lg cruiser all right is it like a wemo yes yes yes so it's got it's got a scroll wheel slash do button in the middle it's got a four-way uh controller if you want to click are you getting this like it's so you can if you're in a long list if i'm looking at movies on my external drive which are just it's not the smartest app in the world but i can just we'll just like i can use a simulation ready i can do that and then it's also the i don't love that this is the do button, but the scroll wheel is also a do button. It's got all those things.

It's got defaults that you can, you know, have fun with. It's got all of the controls on the remote. And boy, is it ever way easier. That combination of the LG app and the LG remote.

You know what? If it weren't for Apple stuff at this point, I don't know if I would keep using an Apple TV. There's serviceable apps for almost everything. And there's way better apps for a lot stuff the netflix app on lg is just is way better and until very very recently it was the only only

Alexthing in my house that would let me do 4k youtube i truly didn't realize how bad the apple tv experience was until i saw some someone's smart tv and saw how easy and how much better youtube

Merlinlooked and I'm like, oh, right. Oh my God. And like using, using a Roku, Roku has been better at so many things for years before I own, I think I owned it now. Oh, I only had the giant old Apple TV that looked like a Mac mini. Oh, I loved it. But like Roku, it's, here's the thing. You can go simple or you can go powerful and trying to do both is rough and trying to do neither sucks. And I feel like Apple TV is neither useful nor powerful. So, you know, a Roku, it's brain, it's not that simple like if you have that in your rental cottage on airbnb like people will

figure out how to use a roku it's a really cool looking easy to use easy to hold i mean sorry syracuse i know it's not the peanut remote and about the world to be not no but it's a very easy to use remote and it's got buttons to do things instead of this this area up here this could be anything yeah i'm sorry i'm complaining i don't mean to complain uh other things i don't throw to you i i i um i i mentioned this on twitter today uh the the benefits of list making i think there are benefits to list making and i'll tell you why one of the benefits of list making is it shakes

loose a bunch of stuff you didn't know were on your mind and so once you start making a list of a kind of thing a whole new world opens to you because now you have a place to put things when you know what i mean you've got the same way like an index card is where the thing goes it's like

AlexGTD for entertainment. Kind of. In a good way. That's how I think about it. It's not just for

Merlinentertainment. Well, okay. Well, no, no, no, no. I'm not disagreeing. But like, for example, like, I've got my list we talked about here called my happy place. I think you have lists like that. If I'm particularly delighted by a YouTube video, it goes on my happy place. Is that really a deep thing to say? You know what? Fuck you. It is. It's a very deep thing to say. And here's why if i need a happy place day i know i go to the place where the happy things go i have a place to put that and that makes all the difference in the world um i mentioned that um when i i've

learned finally whenever i add a new home kit device take a fucking photograph of the code a listener to back to work sent me i guess there's an app that you can get that's for that but i just I have an album. What is an album? An album is a list. I have an album called HomeKit. It's where I put all the things. I have another album that's just the Twitter headers I'd like to use. That's a list. I have a text file with probably at this point over 100 bios that I like to use. I like to change my bio. My bio is my art.

I've got that. So I've got all my Twitter headers over here that I like to use. I've got all my things over here. There is a benefit to making lists, and it's more than just clearing your mind. It's knowing you have a place where stuff goes. So I have lists where I put things like how-to videos. Because if I need to know it now, I might need to know it again. I have a list in text files of Dr. Drang linking to that way of resetting your OpenWith apps. How to reset the launch.

What is it called? LaunchD? Not LaunchD. But you know the thing that gets all fucked up and you have four versions of Fission in there and you don't know why?

AlexOh, yes, yes, yes.

MerlinAnd there's two or three lines. You just drop into the terminal. and I don't know, I'm just, I'm making a case to you that I'm not saying you need to go make a given list and it is great for entertainment, but start thinking about lists that you could begin, lists that you could seed with a few things. Just try this, keep your mind open to places where you could put stuff you didn't know you'd need. And I think that's a real benefit. And I think YouTube is maybe one of the most surprising of those. Yeah, it's nice to have like, oh, here's all the ones where they're in like nip slips on days of our lives or whatever, whatever your deal is.

Donald Jr. But that's my pitch. That's mostly it. I'm throwing to Alex. Alex, what did you do? And you've got to talk to me about Wicked. What did you do with YouTube, if you will?

AlexWell, first, why do you want me to talk about Wicked? Just like how there's Wicked YouTube the same way there's tech YouTube?

MerlinIs this what we're going to do? We're going to do it like this, huh?

AlexOh, I don't. Okay. So the list.

MerlinOkay. So. Okay. Fine. No, no, no. Fine. If you like it this way, we can do this. Let's check 3.28 p.m. Pacific Time. I said to you and producer Quinn, I said, new to me, colon, pulling together clips of many different performances to make a full version of a Broadway show. And I linked to a YouTube video called Wicked, A New Musical HD, which, of course, I clicked because I want to see popular. I want to see the greatest song of all time, Defying Gravity. And I was watching on my phone, laying on the couch here at work. And I was like, hmm, something feels weird about this.

why do they keep like dissolving between a Hamilton length shot, cell phone shot from back here? Why do they keep cutting between that and a super close and somebody who doesn't sound like Kristen Chenoweth or Idina Menzel? Why do they keep cutting between the closeups of them in the far away? This person or some person has taken, I'm going to have to guess at least three and probably 13 different different performances of Wicked and cut together the musical

almost in the way I want to say that like a Star Wars person grabs the best copy of each if you're trying to make like 4K77 or you know silver screen edition.

AlexSo I was asking you

Merlinand I said is that a thing and you said spoilers for my playlist but yes. So do you understand how I would derive the idea that you would mention Wicked and tell me what this is?

AlexWell, it's not just specifically Wicked, but on YouTube, because Broadway is inaccessible for a lot of people, both, you know, because of distance and or cost.

MerlinOr not being open for over a year.

AlexYeah. Or, you know, a pandemic that's literally killing Broadway stars. That was so sad.

MerlinOh, yeah. In the early days. Yeah.

AlexBut a lot of, you know, those people who sneak their little phones out and record a song or two, like someone will kind of crawl. I wish there was a way to crawl YouTube for titles of things. I'm sure I'm sure there is. but uh they'll do like define gravity try to find the best version of that or the version that looks most like the other clips they have found and by other clips i mean just literally other parts of

Merlinthe show some of them look like high school production uh-huh uh-huh yes did you have you looked at this or let me put this way had you had you seen this before i mentioned it i had not seen

Alexthis version but i've seen well that that is the other thing um it's kind of like a fallen off the back of the truck type thing where uh or or like there's there's kind of like codes or not

Merlinnot codes but um everything is no no i this this there's lots of things like this where there is like on all sorts of websites wink wink there are ways to signal what something is without invoking

Alexthe wrath of the person who owns the thing that that is yeah and just the the titles and the tags or like something totally weird, like educational or it'll be named something nonsensical. I saw, oh gosh, it was so good. See, I should make a list of all the amazing titles for Wellesley.

MerlinGood for you, Alex. I'm happy to hear that.

AlexGood for you. Well, I mean, there was just a really good Dear Evan Hansen title that was just like, Hanson, the first band, or it was just ridiculous.

MerlinIs it with our boy?

AlexYes, yes.

MerlinOh, shit, the one I've got sucks. The moms are not good, and the kid is not what I was expecting.

AlexYeah, there are some real great ones and some not-so-great ones.

MerlinI would appreciate your discussion of that in a more private forum.

AlexYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish that I could tell you how the Chicago cast was going, but those performances was out the window. Oh, boy.

MerlinI'm at this point, by the way, just in passing. I can't remember. I feel like this is a band that Quinn likes.

AlexHanson?

MerlinYou know, when you try to guess the last two-thirds of the sentence, you don't always... Yes, Hanson. did i tell you did i tell you how to crush on on the singer before i realized it was a like a 14

Alexyear old boy oh oh oh you were a fully not a crush not a crush a sexual craving no um what i was

Merlingonna say was uh should try to fight what was i talking about um quins we were talking about theoretically the the band beach bunny beach bunny holy shit this is a band well you'll hear this if you listen to rectifs and you catch up this will be mentioned on the rectifs that comes out the day this episode comes out. But no, remember, I tell you this, my kid, yes, I did tell you this, my kid made me that list in July, where she had been talking about all these different bands and all the lesbian bands she loves and how popular with the lesbian kids, and I was like,

and she was looking, she surprised me with a list, and it was so fucking good, and one of the, two of the songs on there were by Beach Bunny. Spoilers, but that band was recommended, one of those two songs was recommended to me by a Reconcilable

Alexdifferences listener oh my goodness and they're totally from chicago oh oh my goodness oh well oh oh after show let's talk about peach bunny i are you aware of them no no i'm i'm on their

Merlinadorable website oh shit dog this is gonna be so great do you like the bet do you like the bests yes yeah yeah if you like the bests i think you i'll speak for myself so yeah i was playing i'm gonna shut up after this you hope but i was sitting around and sometimes i just listen to Spotify. I'll sit in the living room, the lounge, as you say, and I'll just listen to Spotify on the TV. And so I pulled up just to play a bunch of Beach Bunny on the TV. And I think just, it's funny, I went back to it yesterday. I hearted half of the songs on the album already.

And that's not even, obviously, the way I was listening was totally random. So basically, I was hearting every song. That album is so good, we're going to talk about Beach Bunny. how would people get to hear us talk about beach money oh you you would go to give us your fucking

Alexmoney.com and uh support us on patreon so you can hear us talk about oh what what's uh the weird watch problems we're having my watch problem uh my my square phone uh the i've got an apple tv uh thing the dickerson pencil and and now beach bunny who has a delightful website my goodness this is a this is so fun oh the singer the singer is really cool looking she has a great

Merlinvoice alex i'm so sorry i think my iced tea kicked in and the latency is better but my iced tea

Alexkicked in i'm being a i want to say spaz i'm being a weirdo uh it's very upsetting that i think chrome is what is causing it why are you using that you've got to get rid of it i i literally need it for my work.

MerlinOh, so you can look at Facebook. Okay. At what point did I cut you off? I cut you off LG TV, diving board, jump in anywhere.

AlexOh, what'd you make?

MerlinWhat'd you make? What'd you do? Oh, wicked, wicked, wicked. Define gravity. So what's your list? Did you make lists? What'd you do?

AlexI put together some lists and completed some lists of private playlists I had that are basically uh is stitched together broadway shows um oh and and uh thank you people who did did the the bad thing and filmed at uh either concerts or play performance play performances what uh to any sort of live performance because wow that has that that is one thing that has really

really delighted me like I went back into my uh photo photos library and went in I I was I was that person I have a few songs recorded from like concerts in high school or a couple in college and it made me so so happy and I was passing it around to people and they're like oh my gosh and I don't know I'm gonna be less judgmental and shitty about people who occasionally whip

out their phones like well one thing in in particular is uh there was college which is this band that did most of the music for one of my favorite movies drive with Ryan Gosling and what uh yeah and a real human being I love that soundtrack yes I'm the only person I know that

Merlinloves that movie i love it so fucking much i used to fall asleep to that soundtrack every night i

Alexlove it so much it is uh what i it's one of my favorite soundtracks and the it's so perfect it's

Merlinit could not be more like perfect michael man like no i'm not exactly my advice but the 80s

Alexstyle michael man kind of soundtrack oh my god it's so good yeah and well and and they went on a tour just doing the drive soundtrack um and brought another a couple of bands who were were also on there and I filmed a real human wait it's called Real Hero right? Or is it called Real Human Being?

MerlinYeah yeah yeah but yeah that's one of the lines from it. I don't know the names of the songs.

AlexIt's one of my I don't know it's a song that really really means a lot to me

Merlinand it. Oh that record's a mood man. Yeah yeah. It's perfect for like watching somebody with a toothpick in their mouth drive a car at night. It's exactly perfect.

AlexIt's so so good.

Merlinum and is this cliff cliff martinez no who is it uh is this your music person wait what what huh i'm trying to figure out the name of the person i see cliff martinez is a name associated with this did you say knew the person who did the music or were aware of the person who did the music uh

Alexyeah the band college did a lot of the music and there was another college okay um and night call i don't know who night call is by see i'm a fake fake drive fan um but god that that that is i

Merlinthink the first blu-ray i bought yeah a real hero is by college night calls by kavinsky featuring

Alexlove fox socks socks socks under your spell by desire a lot of those bands well the the thing is a lot of those overlap and it's that that album or soundtrack or whatever is like a super

Merlingroup actually um because oh interesting i want to read about this this is so cool yeah it's it's

Alexwell originally the film had like no budget and then they got ryan gosling and i guess they had

Merlinmore money but um it was one of those and carrie carrie mulligan and oscar isaac oh my god

Alexeverybody's so good in that i i i i yeah i i adore that movie and everybody should watch it it's one of my few letterbox uh five five stars and are you shitting me i'm so happy to hear that alex i

Merlinit's like there's this there's a very few like handful of movies my my wife in particular and i like completely disagree on and two that come straight to mind are this and the prestige I still can't believe she does not like the president.

AlexShe's thinking of the wrong movie. She's thinking of the wrong movie.

MerlinI still think she's thinking. I've tried to make her sit down and watch it.

AlexI mean, I...

MerlinAnd I played the moment, the one minute and 17 second segment, where Griffin finally figures out that his brothers were getting him to eat the pasta. He thought that was free pasta to eat while you're waiting at Olive Garden. and he never realized that it's just nasty pasta that was just sitting out as a decoration. Remember that? There's a moment when Griffin puts it together and Justin goes, the prestige!

Show notes

Transcript

210. Yoop Yoop Yoop!

Show notes

Transcript

0:00

0:21

0:40

0:43

1:17

1:51

2:23

2:54

3:15

3:23

3:26

3:41

3:44

3:54

4:01

4:06

4:24

4:25

4:27

4:30

4:31

5:02

5:05

5:07

5:37

6:09

6:14

6:27

6:59

7:31

7:36

7:42

8:15

8:23

8:54

8:59

9:04

9:23

9:54

10:22

10:35

11:06

11:12

11:13

11:15

11:54

12:08

12:36

12:38

12:48

13:13

13:29

13:34

14:06

14:31

14:58

15:14

15:34

15:47

15:49

15:52

15:53

15:56

15:57

16:04

16:23

16:55

16:57

17:00

17:02

17:05

17:35

17:37

17:38

17:59

18:04

18:36