Patreon Newsletter #26: December 2021! (Patreon)

From Adal:

This year is ZIPPING by. November maybe went quickest of all the months yet. Jemma and I had a wonderful time in Puerto Rico. We spent most of our time hiking the beaches (weirdly very treacherous beaches there) and got to sit in the ocean for a bit and soak up all the Jurrasic Park looking scenery. We had an incredible meal of mofongo at a place called Pena Blanca.

This Saturday (Noon CST) I have an online podcasting workshop if anyone has been looking to get into podcasting or workshop ideas for a show:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/podcasting-workshop-with-adal-rifai-tickets-206491330127

If you take the workshop I’ll also guest on your podcast! (Fools….I would have guested regardless!)

Not much else is going. My last day of teaching at UIC is tomorrow so it’ll be nice to be home more and continue to try and fix up the place and get this basement tiki bar going.

I started a new podcast with some friends and am trying to figure out the best/easiest way to distribute it. I’m in need of a logo and theme song if anyone out there is interested! Maybe reach out to me on social media and let me know your rates?

December should be exciting. Jemma and I are taking my mom on a trip to Charleston next week. I’ve never explored the city so looking forward to that and thank you to everyone who sent me recommendations! I’m also going to New Orleans for a day this Sunday as well as going to NYC mid-month with Jemma to see Hadestown for our 5th time! (I splurged on front row seats since it may be the last time we get to see some of the original cast members) We’re also going to see the new mounting of Company and a musical called Caroline or Change which is supposed to be great. AND I’ll be going to LA for a few days at the end of the month. So I’m pumped to be able to travel a bit and catch up with friends!

Oh! Jemma and I got a Peloton so we’re excited to start using that!

Here’s what media I consumed in November -

TV:

• Only Murders in the Building - so much better than I thought it would be. Very much worth checking out.
• The Wheel of Time - at time it looks like there budget was 400 millions and at times it looks like the budget was $40. I don’t think I like it but I’m curious enough to keep watching if for no other reason than figuring out if it’s worth reading the books.
• Drag SOS
• Hawkeye
• The Purina National Dog Show - always a delight to laugh at dog breeds I didn’t know existed
• Yellowstone Season 4
• Mayor of Kingstown
• The Beatles: Get Back
• Ken Burns: Baseball
• The Mind: Explained
• Dexter: New Blood
• Swap Shop
• Taste The Nation: Holiday Edition
• Tiger King Season 2
• Dark Side of the Ring
• Big Mouth Season 5
• Hard Knocks: In Season

Movies:

• Mandy
• Tick Tick Boom
• Eternals
• The Sparks Brothers
• Ghostbusters: Afterlife
• King Richard
• The Humans - my sister originated the Amy Schumer role in the theater production so we watched this together
• The Help
• South Park: Post COVID
• BasketBall

Other Stuffs:

• I got the new Mario Party: SuperStars on Switch and it’s a blast. Mario Party is Jemma’s favorite game and this is a mix of all the best games dating back to the Super NES version.
• I very much enjoyed the podcast Too Scary, Didn’t Watch w/ guest Dan Lippert with Dan talking about his experience filming the new Paranormal Activity movie. Great behind the scenes stories about his time on set.
• Atlas Obscura podcast had an episode on House on the Rock which is one of my favorite places on earth. Big fan.
• I went to two of the Big Grande live shows here in Chicago which was a real treat. Highly recommend seeing these dudes if they’re ever in your city. Also would love to team up and do a tour with them sometime. Backstage Drew told me about his somewhat recent appearance on QVC to promote his family’s candy business and I highly recommend everyone search that out to watch on YouTube.
• I went to CIC Theater to see my friends improvise in a show called FELT. It’s almost like an Avenue Q type puppet show. If you’re looking to see improv in Chicago I’d recommend you go to CIC! Let me know if you’re going and I might hop over there as well to see some shows and say hi!
• I had a board game night with Kelly and Emily Kardamis and we played two games I’d never played before: Medium and Photosynthesis! Both very enjoyable although admittedly with Photosynthesis I was flying blind for the first 30 minutes and kind of lucked into winning. If you ever hang out with Emily you must DEMAND her brown butter chocolate chip cookies. I was very upset with how good they were.

I guested on the following podcasts!

• Just Ghoul With It - talking about the movie Mandy!
• Crews Control

Please let me know what you’ve been enjoying so I can consume some new media!

Love,

Adal

7:17pm

From Shruump

I wus nuvver ded! Fuulled yew!

Lurv Shruump

From JPC:

Hey everyone!

December is my birthday month, so you know what that means: nothing. It means nothing. This is 33 though, which is the Farley/Belushi/Jesus year. Pretty cool!

As we move into Chicago winter, I'm watching a lot more tv and, I gotta say: it's all bad. And I kinda think it's not even trying to be good anymore? Well, anyway, enough about that. Instead of talking about the bad TV I've been watching, I thought this month I'd talk about some of the good podcasts I've been enjoying this year:

1. The 5-4 Podcast. My sister-in-law turned me on to this one and I devoured the back catalog in like 2 weeks. It's phenomenal. Three lawyers going through famous 5-4 Supreme Court cases and talking about why they (the cases & the justices) suck. If you aren't a judicial buff, you'll probably walk away from it learning about the law too, so that's a plus.

2. Blowback. Again, devoured the first 2 seasons (I think it used to be a Stitcher Premium exclusive but now it's free?) It's a history podcast that does deep dives on specific events. First season is the Iraq War and the second season is the Cuban Revolution. Just fantastic analysis that offers a different perspective than a lot of the corporate media framing of events (diplomatic way to phrase that).

3. Citations Needed. Y'all, if you aren't listening to this one, please do yourself a favor. I'll just drop their tagline (one of the best taglines in the business): Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. The show is incredibly well-researched and again, offers a very interesting perspective on current events.

4. TRASHFUTURE. Look, I know next to nothing about the happenings in the UK, but I just find this group supremely entertaining and I like broadening my media horizons. For instance, shit sucks over there too! Who would have thought! Even if you aren't British, I'd recommend giving this one a try.

5. QAnon Anonymous. I found this podcast at the beginning of the pandemic when I was dealing with some FAMILY ISSUES and I gotta say, it really helped. The three hosts have been tracking QAnon for a few years and they offer deep dives on movement, the grifters, and the horrible ways that conspiratorial thinking twist people's brains. Maybe you have a loved one that fell down the rabbit hole in the last few years. If so, this show could provide some context. Or, you may just enjoy listening to the most bat-shit wild things you've ever heard and cringe at how many people believe them to be 100% true.

Okay, those are my recommendations. My other recommendation is to be good to yourself and be good to those around you.

Much love and SEE YOU IN 2022!

Johnny Papa Cool

-JPC

Other News!:

1. We are coming back to San Francisco Sketchfest! Our show is Sunday January 9, 2022 from 4:00pm - 5:30pm PST at the Gateway Theatre 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA 94111 and you can get tickets here: https://www.heyriddleriddle.com/live
2. This months holiday Review Crew will be for the movie The Princess Switch 3!
3. For $8 RC tier patrons, we will be having a real live-stream this month! We think we have a way to stream our zoom on Youtube, so mark your calendars for Wednesday 12/15 at 7pm Central. We'll be doing a talk-back and our annual gift exchange!
4. Starting Jan 1 2022 (technically Jan 2, the first Wednesday), we will be adding ad-free main feed episodes to the Patreon feed. These will be accessible for anyone at the Review Crew ($8) tier. This will be for all main feed episodes going forward but nothing in the back-catalog. They will most likely post a few hours after the regular main feed eps drop. If you are a current RC subscriber, you don't have to do anything, the eps will automatically be in your feed! Oh, and we usually do live show announcements in ad-slots on the main feed, so if you aren't listening to the main feed anymore, be sure to check the announcements channel in discord or patreon posts for future live-show announcements.
5. We have 2 new designs in our merch store! An Animal Parade design and a PuzzBot design! Check them out here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts?query=hey+riddle+riddle

As always let us know what YOU recommend in the comments below and if there’s anything you’d like to hear us do on a Patreon episode!

Love you all and thank you again for the support! We are perverts, bum ba dum dum dum dum dum.

Adal, Erin, Shruump & JPC