Patreon Newsletter #27: January 2022! (Patreon)

From Adal:

Hey you Future Lizards!

It’s wild to be entering our 3rd year of COVID but I’m trying to remain optimistic that it’ll be behind us at some point this year. I hope everyone is boosted and doing well!

Jemma and I had some fun quick trips in December. We swung by New Orleans for a quick 24 hour jaunt and discovered an amazing new brunch spot, Willa Jeans. We also got to play the Smuggler’s Den escape room at the brilliant Escape My Room thanks to a wonderfully kind HRR fan, Rachel. We both put it in our top escape rooms we’ve ever done and highly recommend it if you have the chance to go! (not for anyone afraid of the dark).

We also took my mom to Charleston as a Christmas gift! I’d never been and we had a blast. The vibe is ‘if New Orleans won the lottery’. Beautiful city and we had out of this world meals at Lewis BBQ (best brisket I’ve ever had) and HUSK (so good we ate their twice).

Our last trip was to NYC as I had bought Jemma some Broadway show tix for Christmas. We wanted to see Hadestown for a 5th time before the cast started to change but unfortunately the show was canceled an hour before opening curtain so we ran to catch Jagged Little Pill and ended up seeing the final performance ever as they ended up shuttering the show for good. Beside the standout performance from Lauren Patten the show was not my cup of tea. We also saw Caroline or Change which was fantastic and the remount of Company which blew me away. Truly one of the best productions of musical theater I’ve ever seen. I’m hoping to take Erin to see it before it closes! We were in NYC right as Omicron started to hit hard so we were happy to get out of there and get home to lounge around and just nest and watch tv.

Other than that I’m just excited to start a new year and try and focus up on a couple of projects I’m working on!

Here’s what media I consumed in December -

TV:

• Cobra Kai Season 4 - I don’t know how it happened but this show won my heart. It’s so funny, impactful and surprising in the way it unfolds and this new season is the best one yet. I stayed up until 10am the other night so I could watch the full season. This gets 10 out of 10 Adal’s.
• Pen15 Season 2 Part 2 - brilliant as ever
• The Book of Boba Fett - was over the moon to see former Magic Tavern guest and the guy who got me my job teaching at UIC, Dave Pasquesi as Mok Shaiz’s Majordomo. Hoping we see more of his character!
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 15
• How To With John Wilson Season 1 - very weird and charming
• Work in Progress Season 1
• Queer Eye Season 6
• The Witcher Season 2
• 1883
• The Stand-ups Season 3
• Harry Potter: 20th Anniversary Reunion

Movies:

• Power of the Dog
• Spider-Man: No Way Home
• Don’t Look Up - I absolutely LOVED this movie but I’ve heard that it’s getting quite a bit of hate.
• Death To 2021
• RENT - I’d never seen the movie and Jemma insisted I watch it
• The Matrix: Resurrections
• West Side Story
• If I Leave Here Tomorrow (Lynard Skynard documentary)
• Elf
• Scrooged
• Home Alone
• The Super Bob Einstein Movie
• South Park: Post Covid - The Return of Covid
• The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star

Other Stuffs:

• Played the games 7 Wonders Dual and  A Little Wordy with Jemma and we enjoyed them very much! 7 Wonders Dual is one of the best 2 player board games we’ve tried.
• If you live in/are visiting Chicago soon, I highly recommend a new place I found called Kasama that has incredible filipino breakfast sandwiches and baked goods.
• My sister loves the tv show Ramy so we went and saw Ramy Youssef live and he was great. When things allow I’d gotta get out and see more stand-up. Let me know if you have a favorite as I feel I’m a bit out of the loop.

I guested on the following podcasts!

• Destination: Passport - my episode should be out tomorrow!
• Tomahawk and Stu Pitch a Podcast - not sure when my episode airs

I hope everyone had a wonderful holidays and that 2022 is your best year yet!

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

Love,

Adal

7:17pm

From Shruump

Sumwhone haz tu saye itt. FUK LAZAANYA. Vury badd pista.

Luv

Shruump

From JPC:

Hey Riddiots!

Pour one out (bucket of piss) for auld lang syne! 2021 is in the history books and GOOD RIDDANCE. Or maybe it would be bad riddance in this instance? Like, getting rid of it is good, but the way it went out is very bad. I guess the important part to focus on is the "riddance" because we are definitely rid of it. At least temporarily. Depending on how you perceive time, of course. In many ways, we'll never be rid of 2021 because our experiences shape who we are. Barring some sort of radical brain reconfiguration, perhaps through trauma or some sort of medical intervention. Anyway, at least according to our calendars, 2021 is over. At least if you are using the Gregorian calendar. I guess for many calendars 2021 is already over and, in some, it hasn't even begun. Well, anyway, the one thing that we can all probably agree on is that reality is totally and completely subjective.

Moving on, I know it's been awhile since I updated anyone on my Brandon Sanderson journey but I finished the first Mistborn trilogy and overall, I liked it! And I'd recommend it. And in order to avoid spoilers for people who might want to read it, I'll simply say this: the magic system is very interesting. Oh, and I think it had a pretty satisfying ending. Ok, that's it.

I'd also recommend How To with John Wilson on HBO. We just finished Season 1 and it's a lot of fun.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of music from 2002 to reflect on what 20 years has done to my taste in music (there is an upcoming Billbuds ep on this subject) and it's a real fucking trip. I highly recommend the exercise for anyone around my age (or maybe do 2012 for a 10 year retrospective) because there are a lot of songs/bands I haven't thought about in decades that are just a blast to remember.

I hope everyone is staying safe! Thanks so much for making 2021 slightly less awful. I've really enjoyed recording this show, especially this last year, and it means so much to me that y'all listen to it, enjoy it and support it.

Best,

JPC

Other News!:

1. We’re sad to announce San Francisco Sketchfest has been postponed! We hope to be there when it next happens!
2. This months holiday Review Crew will be for the video game Superliminal! Play on Switch or wherever else it might be found, or even just watch a YouTube/Twitch play through if you want to follow along!
3. We will announce the date for our January livestream soon!
4. Starting tomorrow ad-free main feed episodes will be added to the Patreon for $8 Review Crew members! Just a reminder, 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!
5. The 3 of us guested recently on the podcasts Sound Deals and Man Now Dog Pod! Please check out those episodes and the podcasts in general!

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