#josie listens to podcasts

[murderandcoffee]

"mr. bonzo is one of our externals" I'm sorry, is that bitch getting PAID?

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

05/02/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Cast & Crew Sightings; Taika Waititi; Claudia O'Doherty; Dominic Burgess; Eliza Cossio; Erroll Shand; Watch Party Reminders; Fan Spotlight: Cast Cards; OFMD Colouring Pages; Stede & Ed (Calvin & Hobbes); MerMay Prompts/submissions; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika;

= Cast & Crew Sightings =

= Taika Waititi =

Taika is in NYC with Rita for more TypeBea launches! Additionally, the Met Gala happens to be on May 6th, will they be showing up again this year?

Img Src: Rita Ora's IG Storys

Img Srcs: DailyMail

= Claudia O'Doherty =

Our dear Mary, Claudia O'Doherty has peeked her head out again! This time with cooking suggestions and a podcast! Check her out on the latest episode of @douboyspodcast. Listen here

= Erroll Shand =

Just Erroll in a priests outfit with the song "Reflections" by Diana Ross & The Supremes.

Img Src: Erroll's IG Story

= Dominic Burgess =

Dominic got to slay on Palm Royale this week! Check out that suit! Bonus --Once again, I am a sucker for cat content, any cast member that shows their pets I'm posting it. Check out these adorable babies of our dear Jeffrey Fetterling.

Img Src: Dominic Burgess' Twitter

== Eliza Cossio ==

One of our dear writers, Eliza Cossio just so happens to have co-written a spin off of Felicity called "Felicity In Space". It's available on her Instagram here: tinyurl.com/FELICITYINSPACE

Img Src: Eliza's IG

== Watch Party Reminders ==

Palm Royale picks back up May 9 via @LCWebsXOXO with the lovely @/dominicburgess approx. 4pm EDT/9pm BST/1pm PST!

= Wrecked =

Last 2 episodes of Season 1 is on the docket for tomorrow! Don't have access? Reach out to me on @gentlebeardsbarngrill on tumblr, or @aspirantabby42 on twitter.

Days: Apr 29 - May 3

Times: 3:30 pm PT / 6:30 pm ET / 11:30 pm BST

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards =

Tonight is non other than Josie Whittlesey, aka Hellkat Maggie, and the reason we have OFMD in the first place! Thank you so much @melvisik for spotlighting her!

Img Src: @melvisik's Twitter

= OFMD Colouring Pages =

More colouring pages by @patchworkpiratebear! And it fits with the MerMay Theme! I would love to print out a whole books worth of these once they're done!

Img Src: @patchworkpiratebear's Tumblr

= Stede & Ed (Calvin & Hobbes) =

A new fan spotlight tonight features our very own darling @blakbonnet! She's been making these awesome Calvin/Hobbes redraws with Stede and Ed for a while now, and she was kind enough to let me share them with you in the recaps! If you haven't seen them already, please check them out on her blog! Theres's so many to catch up on so we'll be seeing more each day for a bit!

Src: @blakbonnet's Tumblr

== Mer May Prompts ==

There's prompts going on every day from the @saveofmdcrewmates and @bizarrelittlemew's MerMay Bingo and it's taking me a bit to get permission to share, but I'll share when if/when I can! A few of our crewmates are going strong with the themes!

= Spanish Jackiez =

Our talented @erostheartist had this submission for Mermay Day 1. I love the idea of The Swede as a merman <3 Visit them on their blog for more artwork!

= Plunder =

Today's SaveOFMD MerMay Day 2 prompt was "Plunder" -- and as always, @blueberreads never ceases to amaze with the awesome pixel art they make! The very important plant booty even makes an appearance-- and that tailcoat swoosh! I love it! For more pixel art awesomeness, please follow them on their blog!

In addition, @erostheartist had some gorgeous ideas on Plunder with Izzy Hands and jewelry, check out their post here to learn more about this piece.

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies! It's finally Friday tomorrow! I hope you all are finally going to get some rest and relaxation this weekend. We could all use some! I'm gonna go into a bit of a heavier topic tonight, so if you don't have the spoons please don't worry about reading it right now (or ever). I've noticed a big rift going on in the fandom. Whether its on twitter, or tumblr, there's definitely a lot of contention between various groups of fans. I'm sorry if that's stressing you out-- I know it can be really hard to see that kind of thing, especially when we put the time and effort into putting ourselves out there and trying to find a safe space ship we can belong to. Obviously I can't speak to the entire fandom, but the way I've been trying to process what's going on is I think we're running into some Post Cancellation-Fatigue/Aggression. When we were getting regular content from the show, or we were fighting to get the show back more, even if there were some differences between parts of the fandom, it still felt at least somewhat cohesive with some random outliers. That mutual fight for the show isn't as strong now, and the only content we get is BTS from Samba or some of the other lovely crewmembers, and I think it's starting to weigh pretty heavily on people. Sure, there's always been some contention, but a lot of folks have expressed that it's felt a lot stronger the last few days and I have to agree. Have you ever seen those cat videos where there are three cats -- two are focused on one another, and then another cat sneaks up from behind and scares one of them, and then the startled cat starts fighting the other one that wasn't involved? That's what your behavioural specialists would call "misplaced aggression". Same with if your two cats are fighting, and then you try to interrupt, and they scratch you--it's not caused by you but that aggression gets directed at you. That's kinda how it's feeling right now. There's something bugging all of us on some level (and its not all the same thing) and that's translating into frustration, and being modern times we can express those frustrations online-- and maybe not worded in the best way, and suddenly we've got this huge blow up of contention between groups. Now, I may be misreading it, but I've seen this happen in a few other fandoms post cancellations, and it feels similar.

How do we navigate that kind of change? Well, it's not easy. Fandoms are supposed to be fun. They're supposed to be a relief from stress and help us escape the crazy shit going on in this world.

You're allowed to want to just relax and have fun. You're allowed to love your blorbos, and your pairings, whether they follow canon or not ( just like anything in life, don't force them on others if they don't want them). You're allowed to have fun and learn new things and enjoy all of the wonderful things that happen in the show, as well as how many positive things have happened from it's existence.

That being said, you don't owe anyone your energy and mental health-- so if you're not feeling great about a particular group, or chat, or server, or whatever you're in, remember to be kind to yourself and prioritise your happiness. There's a reason there are block buttons on most social media-- not everyone gets along, and you shouldn't have to sacrifice your peace for the sake of other people's frustrations.

There are going to be groups that feel extremely strong one way or the other, and they're going to want you to pick a side. If you find that you identify more with one side, and you feel comfortable and accepted with them, then by all means, find your new safe space ship! If you don't want to pick a side, if you just want to love your blorbos and listen to all the different fun meta going on-- that's okay too! Look for people who share that same ideal-- and aren't as worried about one way or the other.

Hell, if you're enjoying the hell out of all the crazyness going on-- then that's fine too you bringer of chaos, you do you <3. I will repeat this lovelies-- this is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be an escape, not an added stressor.

Do you need a few days away from the internet? Go nuts! Go outside, lay in the grass, drink your favorite drink and eat your favorite snack. The internet will be here when you get back. This show that brought us all together is about love, kindness, acceptance, learning, growing, making mistakes, forgiveness, support from our friends and family, redemption, and breaking the paradigms that society wants so badly to hold us down with. Those are the things we need to remember and cherish. This show taught us that there are very few situations that are irredeemable with effort, if people are willing to try. It taught us that where we are now doesn't have to be where are in a day, or a month, or a year, or 10 years and nothing is set in stone. We can change our own circumstances if we need to. It's perfectly reasonable to be upset that our safe space ship is having some troubles right now, and I feel it just like everyone else, so I get it. But-- just like the show tells us, nothing stays the same forever, and things can get better. Things can mend. Fandoms can mend, friendships can mend, relationships can mend. Or they can be severed and allow for those involved to move on. Whatever YOU need to do for your peace is okay and valid (we just ask that its not purposefully causing harm to others). You're allowed to prioritise yourself and your happiness.

If you need to talk, or vent, reach out to like-minded crewmates (you're welcome to message me but I may be slow due to work stuff, but I'm happy to listen and talk when I can!)

No matter where you are, no matter how you're feeling, you are loved.

You are doing your best, and you will get through these harder times. Remember to be kind if you can, and give yourself grace too.

Sleep well lovelies, I hope tomorrow is easier for you <3

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

Tonight's theme is "silly", because we all need a little sillyness in our lives.

Gifs courtesy of the stupendous @ofmd-ann and marvelous @darkinerry <3

[thelaurenshippen]

wOW I've totally slacked on posting my last few weeks of listening logs (and tbh, I'm still figuring out how best to post them on tumblr specifically - I think I just might start to share the videos?) anYWAY, here's the last three weeks of shows I've dipped my ears into (I regret that phrase)

WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE - I don't need to explain WTNV to you, this was my 'classics' week for the month

LIMETOWN - spooooooky

MODES OF THOUGHT IN ANTERRAN LITERATURE - lecture series about an ancient society, but fictional, y'all will love it

CONSUMED - another great spooky show from Aaron Mahnke! more New England haunts!!!!

JOSIE'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB - improvised call-in radio show! very fun!

ROCKING CHAIR; OR, SETTLEMENT - eerie folk musical horror podcast, it's incredibly cool and unique

OKAY now I'm caught up, all these posts are very chaotic but we're figuring it out

[tellnotalespod]

This mini-episode Monday, Riley and Julia visit the Coronation Club. They may not have a working recorder, but they can still speak to (living) queer activist Louisa Truman, voiced by the incredible Josie Thomas. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!

[andreal831]

something you'd never know if you just watched TO is how young Hayley is. she's like three years older than Davina. She's around Josh's age. Cami is older than her. it's so wild. she was 19/20 when she had Hope. it's like how you forget that Rebekah & Kol were turned as teenagers because the actors are clearly older. when i watched TVD after having seen most of TO (i watched out of order, thank you netflix recommended), i was shocked when s4 introduced her as Tyler's friend and in the age cohort of Matt, Caroline, etc. because TO frames her as an adult (maybe because she's pregnant) in contrast to Josh and Davina who are framed as teens. it's just jarring. sorry for all the asks in a row, i've been rewatching and listening to TVDU podcasts (if you have recommendations, i'd love to hear them) and it's got my brain buzzing.

unrelated but in an earlier meta you mentioned Hope in Legacies killing a wolf alpha and said he was a crescent and i wanted to clarify that he wasn't. he was the wolf alpha that worked for Triad. we see him die in a montage along with the witch who works for Triad. it's a whole thing

Lastly, (i swear i'm nearly done), i support all the Mikaelsons being allies when Hope inevitably came out. Based on some Legacies backstory lore, i like to imagine Hope came to Auntie Freya and Hayley to ask them about her crush on Josie.

Hope and her baby cousin should've interacted, i can't believe we never got to see them on screen together.

anyway i'm done, love your metas so much especially the ones on Esther & Lily (justice for these women in the face of the fandom's misogyny)

Hayley is a baby and I remind people of this as much as possible.

We see the image on the left as Hayley but really it's the image on the right who died in child birth and was dragged into the Mikaelson's world.

I even think TO attempts to make us forget how young she is. In Season 2, Mary guesses at her age, saying she's around 25, when in reality she would have only been like 21 or 22. They worked so hard to make us view her in the age range of Klaus, Elijah, and Cami. When, as you said, she was basically the same age as Josh. They do so much work to age her. Even Cami is only 24 but they act like she is older. Her brain isn't technically fully developed at the start of TO. She is only eight years older than Davina. But like I said not long ago, they go out of their way to make Davina seem like a child but Hayley and Cami like full grown adults when in reality they aren't that different in age.

People get mad at Hayley for making dumb decisions and I'm like, yeah, she's young and naïve. People judge 20 year old Hayley who is fighting for her life harsher than the 1000+ year old vamps who are making a mess of her life.

I do not have any podcast recs but if anyone else does, please let us know!

Thank you for explaining the Legacies thing. I've seen enough spoilers to generally know what happens but clearly I don't see everything.

I wish Hope would have had that support system. Or even have had a moment like that with Freya and Hayley. She was old enough and even admitted to having a crush on Josie so I like to imagine she did have that conversation. It was such a waste to talk about baby "Nik" but never introduce him or have Hope interact with him. Did they even meet??

Thank you so much for reading so many of my metas! I'm glad they resonate with people!

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Longtime fans of Andrew Zaltzman will be aware of his famous early review that called him "grindingly mediocre". He brings it up fairly often. He used to have a thing in his stand-up where he'd introduce himself dramatically at the beginning, as though he were both a pro wrestler and his own hype man, shouting about all his accomplishments, and one was bragging that he was the comedian who was once called "Grrrrrr..." - said in a Tony the Tiger voice, but then he goes "Grrrrrindingly mediocre" instead of "great". He used to bring it up somewhat regularly in Bugle introductions too. And I've heard him tell that story in several interviews, that "grindingly mediocre" was the first review he ever got, when he was just starting to get serious about stand-up.

Last week I was down a bit of a rabbit hole in the ancient history of Zaltzman's comedy career, with the So You Think You're Funny finals from 1999, where Andy Zaltzman was a finalist alongside Russell Howard, Josie Long, and Jimmy Carr, and they all lost to David O'Doherty. Though Jimmy Carr was left off the Wikipedia page for years, which caused some brief research to confirm whether it was even true that Carr was there, though I think it is true, as he was on their website. And I found an old Bugle clip of Andy Zaltzman and David O'Doherty talking about having been in a new act competition final with Jimmy Carr once.

Anyway. I decided that today was the day to tackle another part of Zaltzman's comedy career's ancient history. Or rather, to tackle it again. Because of course I've tried to find that review before. I'd heard Andy mention that it was from 2000, and it was in The Observer. For the last couple of years, every once in a while I'll try again to search various combinations of those words, but nothing comes up.

But today, I was listening to Andy Zaltzman's appearance on The Horne Section Podcast, in advance of seeing more Zaltzman/Horne pairing next week. And I heard this:

Those were a couple of new details! I'd pictured this review being of a performance that Andy did in London; it was news to me that it was an Edinburgh thing, with The Comedy Zone. It was also news to me that his name was misspelled, which would explain why searches for "Andy Zaltzman" along with other key words was bringing up nothing. This gives me a new angle to try!

So I tried doing the searches with common misspellings of Andy Zaltzman's name - he gets Zatlzman and Zalztman sometimes. Then I tried without his name in the searches at all, just trying to find reviews of The Comedy Zone from 2000. I tried searching with the names of the people who were in the 2000 Comedy Zone alongside Andy: Karen Taylor, Danny Bhoy, and someone I'd not heard of named Spencer Brown. No luck.

I did find some other culture-based broadsheet news articles from 2000, though, and that sure is an interesting thing to click through in 2024. I found one 2000 Guardian article with the headline "Gay kiss on TV shows hidden power of disgust threshold".

Anyway, I started searching for names of people who could have written the review. Googling who were the Guardian critics who went to Edinburgh in 2000 to write reviews.

Whenever I found a name of one person who wrote culture stuff for The Guardian/The Observer in the early 00s or late 90s, I went to their profile to find all the articles they wrote in August 2000. I started with Brian Logan, because 1) he's the Guardian critic I know about already and I've found his very old reviews of Kitson shows before so I know he was with The Guardian that long ago, and 2) "grindingly mediocre" does sound like the sort of thing Brian Logan would say. But I checked - he only wrote a few articles from Edinburgh 2000, and none of them mentioned The Comedy Zone.

Through this, however, I realized The Guardian uses a tagging system, and I could click on the "Edinburgh Festival 2000" tag to get all the articles with that tag at once. There were 151 of them. First I skimmed them, clicking on any headline that looked like it could be related to The Comedy Zone, or a negative review. Nothing came up, so I just went to the beginning and started a system of clicking on every articles. Open ten or so articles at a time in new tabs, then in each one, hit CTRL+F - enter, with the word "grindingly" in the "find" bar, and when nothing came up, close it and try the next one. I did this over and over, for several pages worth of links, and at some point it became clear that it's not going to come up, and I was just still clicking because I may as well be able to say I checked everything.

I'm not proud to say how long I spent on this. I mean, I shouldn't be proud, but I did just spend quite a few paragraphs in this post explaining all the different steps I took, and the only reason to do that would be if I think the amount of research I did is impressive enough to be worth explaining, so I suppose I can't really say I'm not proud of it. Anyway, it was a bit over two hours. Well, two hours from when I started searching today until I found it. That doesn't include the many hours scattered across the last couple of years from other days when I've tried to look that up.

Two hours into today's searching, when suddenly, as I hit "enter" on a search for "grindingly" on some old article, it jumped down the page, and there it was. There it was.

That's the final paragraph for a larger article by Sam Taylor, a reviewer I'd not heard of before, that covered several different acts from the Edinburgh Festival, on August 6, 2000. Found it! I fucking found it!!

Firstly, when Andy said his name was misspelled in the review, and I was trying to guess what spelling they might have used so I could search for that, I would never have guess they spelled it "Zeltzman". I've never seen anyone spell his name like that before, not even in a YouTube comment.

Secondly, it turns out Andy was not kidding when he said he only got two words. I had always assumed he was exaggerating about that, saying he only got two words but meaning he felt reduced to those two words. Not that his first-ever review literally described him with only the two words "grindingly medicore". I shouldn't have doubted him.

It's an interesting assessment, that paragraph. Fairly accurate about Danny Bhoy, I guess, if you wanted to describe him in the meanest way possible. I don't find Danny Bhoy's comedy particularly funny, but he does have a personal quality that comes through on stage in a way that I'd describe as "charming and likeable", and yet, if I wanted to be as uncharitable as I could toward him, I could possibly describe that same quality was "boyishly narcissistic". I'm immediately suspect of what this guy said about Karen Taylor, as 2000 is early enough so women were more likely to get dismissed as "crude" for just doing stuff that was considered fine when men did it (I'm thinking of some of those old sexist Smack the Pony reviews). I mean obviously that can still happen now, but it was more common then. Maybe Karen Taylor wasn't any good. But this was right around when The Sketch Show came out and she was very funny in that, so I'm inclined to think this reviewer is just not a good judge. Especially since Zaltzman was one of two surnames he misspelled in that paragraph alone - there's no E in Sean Lock's last name. Also, the one Comedy Zone member that reviewer said was good is the only one I've never heard of. Which doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't good, but it does mean that reviewer picked wrong about who'd find success.

To be fair, he wasn't all bad in his predictions, as this was just the last paragraph of an article that largely consisted of praise for Rich Hall's character-based show, which would go on to win the Perrier Award that year (back when it was actually called the Perrier). And he praised Dave Gorman's show that also got nominated for the Perrier that year. This was, of course, the year of Are You Dave Gorman?, the godfather of concept-based Edinburgh hours. The article encourages anyone named Dave Gorman to help the comedian in his quest by contacting "dave.gorman@virgin.net".

But that's not all. That reviewer, still within the same article, had some stuff to say about just-out-of-a-double-act Stewart Lee:

The show is his usual patchily inspired mix of pseudo-profundity and postmodern knob gags. The knob gags get the laughs. Lee challenges his audience's value systems. That gets a laugh too. And so on. If you've never seen him before, it will probably seem really fresh and original. If you have, you'll realise this talented man has been treading water for several years now. The more you see Lee's show, the more transparent the veil of mystery appears. Strip away his intensely stylised delivery - slow, sarcastic, agonisingly repetitious - and the actual jokes are mostly rather conventional: anti-American gags; pisstakes of people making obvious statements; observations on Australia; anti-German gags; pisstakes of Ben Elton and John Denver; observations on anal sex and his penis. There are a few great lines - he has always secretly known that he was Scottish because he 'craved shortbread, offal and heroin' - and a dazzling little section in which he does the sea diary of an owl, trapped in a rowing boat with a pussycat and a jar of honey, to the accompaniment of moody ambient music, like a TV documentary on Scott of the Antarctic. Twenty minutes of brilliance is, admittedly, more than you get in most stand-up shows, but you're still left with the slightly sour taste of someone whose abilities are only being half-used. If he's really so jaded by comedy - 'My job is going round the world, talking about scatalogical filth,' he says, 'which is a bit rubbish, in my opinion' - then maybe he should give it up and do something more fulfilling instead.

Like with Danny Bhoy, a few of those lines are what I'd call technically accurate descriptions of Stewart Lee - in fact, in a few ways this suggests that it's amazing how little he's changed since 2000 - but only if those descriptions were written by someone being as uncharitable toward Lee as possible. Yeah, sure if you strip away the intensely stylized delivery he's just a guy telling jokes. We know. The intensely stylized delivery is quite a big part of it.

I do find the first paragraph of the Stewart Lee bit I quoted especially funny. The guy spent a few sentences quite accurately describing Stewart Lee's shtick as it's been for well over 20 years now, and then says: "If you've never seen him before, it will probably seem really fresh and original. If you have, you'll realise this talented man has been treading water for several years now." In 2000. I think Andy Zaltzman can discount the review that called him "grindingly medicore", as that same review claimed that by 2000, Stewart Lee's shtick had gotten old and people who'd seen it before would be tired of it. I also enjoyed the reviewer saying that Stewart Lee should just quit stand-up if he's so sick of it, as I think Stewart did just that the following year, after going on tour with Andy Zaltzman as his opener. Sort of. I'm not sure he entirely stopped performing, but left his agency and stopped doing major stand-up things for a few years. So a better prediction there, I guess.

Well, that was a satisfying day's rabbit hole-ing. I hope everyone is doing something... more productive than I am with their time.

[hazbin-mpreg]

more information on the human AU radiodust kids?

So!

There’s Josephine (they call her Josie for short), she’s their first born. She is autistic and struggles in early childhood. They decide to home school her after she.. attacked a classmate (to be fair she was VERY overwhelmed and the school was not listening). She’s a very quiet girl, really enjoys classic radio shows, snuggling up to Bruno (Alastor’s cat), sometimes she’ll watch true crime documentaries, or listen to podcasts (just depends on what mood she’s in), she relies a lot on sensory needs such as weighted blankets, weighted plushies, favorite clothing, fidget toys, etc.

Her brother Oscar is their second born, he has psychopathic disorders like Alastor (there’s an actual name for it- I just cannot remember for the life of me rn), he’s a by quirky. Very much so a mamas boy, and prefers to watch darker tv content. He’s a bit of a night owl like Alastor. He’s a bit close to Josie, but does struggle (they work it out though).

[alsopurp]

’m joined on this episode by hosts of the Queer Cinema Catch Up Podcast Allison and Joe!

We get into 2001’s Josie and the Pussycats, directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan and starring Rachel Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, Rosario Dawson, Alan Cumming, Missy Pyle and Parker Posey.

The film was a commercial and critical failure that turned into a cult classic in the years since its release. We sit down to reappraise the biting satire and think about what it was trying to do in the context of today!

+ Find out how we fit the following in the conversation

Nostalgia

Predicting pop-punk

The mainstreaming of punk music

Rockism vs Poptimism

Dicks the Musical

Authenticity in the age of

Pop’s teen queens and sexuality 

Innuendo bops

Parker Posey as Elon Musk

An ode to Missi Pyle

Find Joe and Allison on instagram @Queer_Cinema_Catchup and on their YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@QueerCinemaCatchup 

And make sure to check out their podcast!

Keep up to date with Dr. Khaliden Nas by checking out www.alsopurple.com and following @AlsoPurp on all socials.

Hosted and produced by Dr. Khaliden Nas.

Music by PamperedFists & Anzahlung.

All videos edited by Victor Alexander.

Podcast Artwork by Valentine M. Smith. 

Find out more about REFERENTIAL’s upcoming episodes on www.alsopurple.com/citations

*'Tangent' are REFERENTIAL's shorter bonus episodes. Slightly different from the main monthly episodes. Expect quick reviews, edited bonus out content, collabs, mailbags, live audio, and whatever else I might think of + They take less time to make so I can update the feed frequently!*

If you liked this episode, help other people find the podcasts! Share, tell a friend, and remember to leave a rating and review!

Thank you for listening!

[gently-decaying-flowers]

i love seeing you descend into podcast brainrot that’s so real (wtnv is GREATT i love it <3 any favorite episodes or characters (or both)?)

RGEGEEHHTHRHR YESSS

hmhmhmmm fav characters are (not in order): cecil, carlos, old woman josie, the faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home, intern maureen, michelle, and mayor dana o7

i can’t think of any specific episodes but like all of them that i’ve listened to because YAY! but i especially love the bonus live show clips, there’s just something about it yk

[panelshowsource]

HEY NOW...

aw thanks anon!! i did post my gif resources a while ago but i can post an updated one of these soon and include some psds! my gifs really aren't that good tho anon — if i'm being honest, i don't really spend that much time on colouring like i could — so if you can find someone PROPERLY good (usually a film/tv blog, as you can imagine) they may have really expert tips 🤔

as someone who has been at the ugliest end of reddit & discord tv/britcom fans' trolldom (too nice a word, really), and lived through the fucking unending years-long era of that one incel's rule over the panel show subreddit, i understand the reticence to participate in those spaces — even though, these days, they're mostly pleasant enough and subs that supply downloads (tv_bunny is life) are more or less transactional. that said, the purpose of this blog has always been to service the people who can't or don't torrent — who a lot of reddit & discord tv/britcom fans don't have the patience for, but i digress — so it doesn't bother me that a lot of my followers don't know reddit as well as i do. no worries!

omg! recently i watched after life (i love kerry godliman!!!!!!!), dara ó briain's new special, and i've also been doing my biannual re-listen of the entire horne section podcast because it is so fucking impeccable chef's kiss! i was catching up on guessable but it's really, deeply, truly mid, so i kinda gave up for a while and switched over to breeders (martin freeman agenda continues). otherwise non-panel show things, some films like close, return to dust, un beau matin, etc. — but that's for my main hehe i'm someone who wishes i could watch 10000 things in one day T_T

hahaha i do get asked this a lot!!! like you there's just so. many. and i often chicken out of substantially answering this because if i forget anyone i'll kick myself SO hard later

but

back in the day i answered a similar question about some non-comedians i want to see on taskmaster AND I SAID AMELIA DIMOLDENBERG AND IT CAME TRUE

LIKE

MY BRAIN 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠

SO MAYBE I CAN MANIFEST THINGS LET'S TRY 🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮

this is personal to me, of course, and i'm considering people i really love + who i think would be really fun specifically on taskmaster, so in a somewhat priority order...

robert webb

stephen mangan

robert irwin

martin freeman

catherine tate

jessica hynes

miles jupp

simon amstell (preferably on the same season as jessica hynes because about 15 years ago (literally) i used to watch this clip religiously, and i'm sure that has something very specific to say about why i am the way i am but we don't have time to psychoanalyse me rn)

larry dean

ed byrne

holly walsh

diane morgan

daniel radcliffe

charlie brooker

hugh laurie

susie dent (omg i was CACKLING at susie, who is never on panel shows(!!!), being on the same episode of guessable as nick helm — and now i kinda wanna see her on the same series of tm as nick helm muhahaha)

kayvan novak

limmy

paul foot

bill bailey

lawrence chaney (i also love the vivienne of course! but i think lawrence may be more fit for tm while the vivenne is more fit for something like celeb juice; btw just watched her on guessable with ivo graham, and ivo calling her "viv"...omg...it did something to me...it really did...again, we're not talking about why i am the way i am)

vic reeves

the sexted boys

some other randoms people i'd certainly be happy to see, even if they don't make the priority manifesting roster — ahir shah, adam buxton, danny dyer, jimmy carr, graham norton, matt berry, glenn moore, maggie aderin-pocock, gary delaney, hal cruttenden, rhys james, huge davies, josie long, alasdair beckett-king, gino d'acampo, julian barrett, and tonsss of actors but we'd be here all day

i don't think there are many people i vehemently do not want to see on the show. while there are of course a few comedians i just don't like, and if taskmaster puts another tory politician on the panel again i'll fucking write in with my upset, the disappointment i typically feel if and when i see a new lineup is more along the lines of "meh they're fine but they took the place of someone i'd much rather see". but tm is also so good at introducing us to people we may not have seen much of before — and then we love them, so i trust the producers and alex a lot!

🔮 MANIFESTING MANIFESTING MANIFESTING MANIFESTING MANIFESTING MANIFESTING MANIFESTING 🔮

—

WATCH LINKS MASTERPOST / FAQ / TAGS / ASK

[murderandcoffee]

"sounds like she was trapped in her greatest fear, which then actually killed her" DING DING DING! MR. KHALID, YOU ARE ONTO SOMETHING! I AM SORRY FOR WHATEVER HAPPENS TO YOU BECAUSE OF THIS

[ear-worthy]

Josie's Lonely Hearts Club: A Semi-improvised Audio Drama You'll Love

Have you ever seen a Russian nesting doll? Remove one and there is another underneath. That's how the new audio-drama podcast Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club unfolds for listeners. It's a captivating drama with layers upon layers -- all of which will fascinate and enthrall. Here's the premise. Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club is a semi-improvised audio drama set in the studio of New Mexico’s third-best romantic advice call-in show. On-air, listeners eavesdrop as Josie (Rachel Music of How Do They Bone?) squares off against top improvisers and her engineer Frank (Maximilian Clark of Superhuman Public Radio). In reality, Josie, the romance advice DJ, is melancholy Joanne Holtzinger. Each episode has off-air vignettes that chart Joanne's journey to nationally syndicated sensation Josie Heller, and then back again when the mics are off.

I listened to the first episode and was fascinated and wildly entertained. The episode begins with Josie discussing first impressions on dates with her listeners, and then encouraging callers to discuss that topic. Josie's voice is faintly Southern - Western and has a breathless quality to it.

For those who know radio, Josie's voice and demeanor reminds me of Delilah, who is a well-known American radio personality. Her show -- on the air since 1996 -- perfected the format for call-in romantic advice radio shows and has an estimated eight million listeners.

Then the call-ins to the radio station begin. These calls are improvised by professionals, and Josie (Rachel Music) has to respond. The callers include a bouncer for the nu metal band Korn, who doesn't know how to talk to women and a man who recounts a tender slow dance with a woman, who abruptly walks out, leaving a shoe behind a la Cinderella. 

Then, on a commercial break, we meet "Joanne," who is the real person behind Josie. We discover that unlike Josie, who dispenses advice on life and romance, Joanne needs support and guidance about her seemingly despairing life.

The calls are fascinating, funny, odd, weird, yet strangely touching.  "What results is an often hilarious and surprisingly human show exploring the risks we idiots take every time we fall in or out of love."

The character Josie Heller was born in 2021 while Rachel Music drove from New York to LA with all of her possessions, her boyfriend, and her dog -- hopefully no in that order. 

"The week-long road trip was full of colorful characters and long stints of AM radio on old Route 66. The germ of a great idea took root...and like most great ideas, the first iteration was crap, and it sat on her desktop." Around this time, Rachel Music was picked to help write and voice season two of Superhuman Public Radio by its showrunner, Maximilian Clark, and the two clicked like Lois and Clark or Cagney And Lacey. A few months later, when Rachel co-founded Good Story Guild, a puzzle emerged: a show as nimble to produce as an unscripted podcast, but with arcs that deepen an audience’s connection to a flawed, vulnerable character. Together, puzzlers Maximilian and Rachel developed an ingenious hybrid– half-improv Olympics, half writers room. An ongoing experiment in creativity, Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club is designed to surprise:a living, breathing show with a narrative spine. Rachel Music (co-creator, Josie) is a full-time artist and road-tested in New York's cabaret and cirque scene. She hosted and produced burlesque and circus revues as airborne, opera-singing Mistress of Ceremonies Kittyhawk Boone before stepping into a production role. Her work spans theater, music and new media, including GUNS, A CABARET, the award-winning short WENDY/GIGI, and the TikTok series EAVESDROPPERS. Now in Los Angeles, Rachel is the co-founder of the Good Story Guild and executive director of the company's audio drama and podcast slate. According to Rachel, she has lent her voice to children’s toys, rodeo commercials, and a lot of alien-on-human erotica. Maximilian Clark (co-creator/showrunner, Frank) has written and/or directed festival winning films, web series, and audio dramas that provide insightful commentary on the human experience interspersed with slapstick and fart jokes. He’s largely responsible for the Starz digital series Llama Cop, and the audio drama Superhuman Public Radio on the Fable & Folly network. He’s been invited to the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal three times, and has been temporarily banned from the Podcast Movement festival in Denver for six months. When he’s not being a creative menace in the world of fiction, he spends his time going undercover at Qanon rallies, producing content with Walter Masterson that exposes far right extremism through comedy and trolling. You can hear about their experiences on their politics podcast We Are Not Journalis.

Good Story Guild apparently birthed Jose's Lonely Hearts Club and when I googled the company this is what came up: "It is a time of crisis in the realm of storytelling: the barriers to entry are getting smaller, new technology continues to disrupt business models and power has consolidated into the hands of a few empires. Storytelling needs a new wave of heroes to usher in the next era. Instead, they got us - a guild of industry veterans, rogues and outsiders alike, brought together through a little serendipity and a passion for great story hooks. GSG is on a journey to bring back a little risk and danger to our beloved art form. Will you join us?"

I really have no idea what all that meant, but their manifesto is weird, intriguing, and I think we need a new true-crime podcast to investigate these people.  

That said, this show is a rule breaker, a genre mash up of epic proportions, a half-scripted, half-improv Jekyll Hyde creation, and 30 minutes of all-out fun, genius, humanity exposed, and as outrageous as detective Benoit Blanc in Knives Out and Glass Onion.

Check out Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club. Even if you don't love it (which you will), you can get some romantic advice or insights on alien on human erotica.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Hey Nico!

Could you perhaps give me, as a person who hasn't listened to WTNV before, a basic summary? I'm really interested in learning more about it!

Ok. I have no idea how to answer that. But I'll try my best. This here will be the version without any major spoilers if you want more details about what happened in the seasons the lore and all you can either send an ask or just DM me (I will love to talk to you either way, bestie).

So let's go.

Welcome to Nightvale is a fiction podcast that mostly follows the (now mandatory) comunity radio show of the fictional city of Nightvale. "A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep."

Nightvale is a strange city. With strange norms and where the unusual is normal. It's a very dangerous city as well, with tragedy and danger at every corner. But it's citzens are close knit, people care about each other and there's none of the types of bigotry we see on our world.

The voice that guides us through Nightvale is our friendly and wacky radio host: Cecil Gershwin Palmer. He is one of my favorite characthers and he is really weird and complex and the ultimate Tumblr Sexyman.

As the episodes go we are presented with more and more of this comunity and met is fascinating residents. Like Carlos, the scientist that came to Nightvale to study it because he and his team find the city to be the most scienticaly interesting comunity around (now while they have a past conected to Lubelle, Carlos and his team are the good scientists), Cecil falls in love with him the moment he meets him though Carlos takes longer to reciprocate. They are the main couple.

Some other famous characthers are John Peters (you know the farmer), Steve Carlsberg, the Glow Clous (all hail), Dana, Tamika Flyn, Old Woman Josie and the Erikas (the likely bíblical accurated angels and the old woman they live with), the Faceless Old Woman that secretly lives in the house of all nightvale citzens, Deb the sentient patch of haze, Kosheck the statiom cat, City Council (an entidy with many heads), Kevin and soo many more.

Nightvale is a mostly linear story that has been going for ten years with some arcs like Strext Corp, Lot 37, the Evil Beagle, Doctor Lubelle and the University of What It Is (the current one) and the slowly unconver of Cecil's confusing and misterious past that started with "Cassetes" the 33th episode years ago.

Is really good and created a lot of the tropes used in modern horror and comedy podcasts. It also was a strong step into good queer representatitivity having an openly jewish gay main characther whose queernes was never used as mockery since 2012 and whose main interest was a gay latino man who is described as being dark skinned. And the representatitivity only improved with time.

[spotlightstudios]

Ya'know? I kinda wanna hear what everyone else's first experiences with Welcome to Night Vale were.

Personally, my first time listening to it was on a visit to my Aunt's place in Tennessee. She lived in a big open valley town, her house was on a hill, and she had a studio shed out back she used for art.

So, as the youngest on the trip (a teen, mind you), they set me loose in her studio to try out a Wacom tablet she'd just gotten and her Adobe programs. I stayed out in that shed so far into the night, for hours, and I couldn't have come in until like, 1-2 AM. Just... drawing and listening to WTNV's first few episodes.

I was (am) a chronic scaredy-cat. Scared of the dark, paranoid about windows, hated being alone in general. Yet, I felt completely at ease listening to Cecil's voice and hearing the stories of that little desert town. Nothing could've pulled me out of that little pocket of time until I was ready.

Even the next few days (a frankly terrifying thunder storm the next night and driving home) I couldn't stop listening. Plus, I think I always think about WTNV, because I was given that Wacom my aunt let me use, and it's my main source of drawing till this day. Like, that tablet and I *bonded* over Cecil's infatuation w/ Carlos, and Old Woman Josie's Angel Friends, and the mysterious Glow Cloud (All Hail the Glow Cloud, obviously).

I think I'd be missing out on one of my favorite genres and stories of all time if I'd never given into the urge to figure out what WTNV was. (Plus, yes, all the fan-art of Cecil in his Sexyman phase was what made me aware of the podcast. While he did not end up being a white-haired think in a purple vest with fun tattoos, what I found was infinitely better.)

[rockislandadultreads]

Libby Spotlight: New Thriller eBooks

Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena

William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he's been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper.

Hours later, Avery's family declares her missing.

Suddenly Stanhope doesn't feel so safe. And William isn't the only one on his street who's hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery's neighbors become increasingly unhinged.

Who took Avery Wooler?

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen

Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it's been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.

Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother's past or background. But when Ruth's desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth's carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

The Last One by Will Dean

When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica, it’s the start of a vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. On their first night they explore the ship, eat, dance, make friends, but when Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is missing.

And when she walks out into the corridor, all the cabin doors are open. To her horror, she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that’s just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white-knuckled mystery.