130: ...And Special Guest Star Robocop Is Bleeding

June 30, 2017 11:33 AM

Hey, who's that on this month's podcast? It's long-time MeFite and all around good fellow robocop is bleeding, who joins me and Jessamyn to talk about making art, living in Salem, MA, and a bunch of MetaFiltery stuff. This episode covers the month of June more or less and runs about 95 minutes.

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Guest facts
- robocop is bleeding lives in Salem, MA with his wife, banjo_and_the_pork and their kiddo.
- makes rad gouge-and-ink engraving art as Corey Press
- is not actually robocop, his name is Drew, robocop's name was Alex, c'mon
- once gave cortex a ride across state lines and so can never be banned from MetaFilter
- unless he pushes it


Misc
- Plutor's mark librarian contributions script
- this is a circular saw
- The ambiguity of Crofton
- cortex's stripey bedroom
- moo
- didn't get a clearance waiver from the monkey


Projects
- 3 Generations of Tools, Photographed by nevercalm (MeFi Post)
- Used Photos by komara
- I say Moo! You say Party! by suetanvil (MeFi Post)


MetaFilter
- A Life in A Day of Touring. by lostbyanecho
- Inspirobot by gennessee
- The Lost Genius of the Post Office by kevinbelt
- TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE STAMPS WILL REVEAL HIDDEN MOON IMAGE by hippybear
- Best videogame roommate by Fizz


Ask MetaFilter
- Want to watch not awful people livestream magic the gathering by Ferreous
- Daughter lost a cuddly toy. I want to replace it with a replica. How? by my-username


Some more MetaFilter, why not
- Do it big, do it right, and do it with style. by Johnny Wallflower
- something something true grit something going against the grain by bondcliff
- Japanese Sumo Robots by Roger Dodger
- The worst. by jeffamaphone
- It's Mr. Galaxywide by AirExplosive
- look, it says "floppy naked guy", I'm not going bother with a NSFW warni by cortex


Music
Featured in this episode:
- When the Curtains of Night by rangefinder 1.4
- Good So Bad by ajryan
- Won't Take Long by InfidelZombie
- A Small Grey Box Filled With Joy by Sokka shot first
- A Goddamn Avalanche by Existential Dread

Also there's that time cortex recorded an apology song for stabbing robocop is bleeding in a game of Diplomacy.

posted by cortex (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 11:33 AM (24 comments total)

Thank you both for justifying my purchase of a new fancy (but not fancy enough) USB microphone! I also realize I confused skill saws and scroll saws. I'll hand in my Ron Swanson badge on my way out of Ruggedtown.

Now feel the might of my fully operational social media machine:
Etsy Shop: The Corey Press
Instagram: coreypress
Facebook: TheCoreyPress
Twitter: CoreyPress
Tumblr: coreypress
Threadless Shop: The Corey Press (This my ongoing answer to my women's t-shirt dilemma - it's still a work in progress)

Just after we hung up, I learned that I had some work accepted to this years Ars Necronomica at Necronomicon this August, so if anyone is heading that way, let me know and we can meet up.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:58 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

Never did get the longer t-shirt discussion out of you, having so much fun talking about other stuff! Also I have a friend in Salem you would like with a new baby, a library background and an interest in weirdness. Do you know Justin? You'd like him.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 1:51 PM on June 30, 2017

Also I have a friend in Salem you would like with a new baby,

But would you like them without the baby?

Sorry.
posted by Literaryhero at 4:36 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'll take a new friend in Salem, please. Hold the baby.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:59 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

Corey Press: I see what you did there. When I worked at #LocalMuseum, we talked about having a t-shirt to express our workload that just said "...More Weight."
posted by Miko at 7:08 PM on June 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh wow! Just got to the part where you mentioned my erstwhile residence in Salem, nice to be thought of. I don't think I ever really got to meet robocop, but I admired him from a short distance because he was always bringing the factual knowledge and research capability to local community issue debates on Facebook (and Patch in its day too). I miss Salem - it was a really good fit for our lifestyle, and its quirks were pleasant ones mostly, but eventually we did want to be closer to family and there were some nice opportunities to pursue. The artwork is great! Robocop, maybe you could design the staff shirt...
posted by Miko at 7:20 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

Almighty Cheeses Burger
posted by Miko at 7:23 PM on June 30, 2017

Oh, good call, Miko; I found a couple photos I took at that meetup, of the menu and the sandwich (with a Narraganset lager in the background). I can't recall whether I actually ordered it or if I blanched but someone else did.

Of which: years later I found that the Grilled Cheese Grill here in Portland, OR, a foodcart that has a schoolbus as its indoor seating area because of course it does, sells the same basic confection. Decided with iamabot to go give it a whirl one day when we felt like hanging out in an especially stupid way. Here's the sandwich (with a Coastal Cooler Capri Sun in the background), and an action shot of me eating it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:08 AM on July 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow - thanks, cortex and jessamyn, for the very kind words about my song collab with not_on_display. Music has been a real comfort and helpful in maintaining my sanity these days, and so it's a bonus when other folks get something positive out of the stuff I record.

I'm also really proud of my recent song collab with billiebee, and was happy to see greenish include it in her latest MeFi Music podcast; so now being included in the MeFi podcast feels like a double special honor because I'm a such fan of both podcasts. [/awkward brag]

I feel super lucky to have collaborated with such talented people and be part of the supportive community on MeFi/MeFi Music. Pretty sure that I wouldn't have been as serious about making music again if it hadn't been for MeFi Music.

A few other things I wanted to say about this episode, based on my notes (if I haven't commented in a recent episode yet it's because I forgot to take notes or lost my notes...):

- I think this is the first in a long time where there was no discussion on the podcast number, so: 130 on wikipedia. It's a sphenic number (TIL what "sphenic" means). Goodbye, "twelfty" numbers.
- Really enjoyed the conversation with robocop is bleeding. I literally lol'd when robocop explained why Mario would be a good roommate.
- I'm very interested in reading the genderswap fanfic of Captain America and Bucky by banjo_and_the_pork! Please point me where to go (either here or mefimail?) and I'm there. (That is, if it's available for public consumption; I understand if it's not.)
- robocop, where can I listen to your podcast? I hope you will talk more about Wonder Woman there since you didn't get a chance to talk much about the movie in this episode. The magician/detective genre sounds really cool also.
- I will never get sick of rambling and inside jokes and (friendly) bickering from cortex and jessamyn.

Also a few of my favorite posts from last month, which didn't get mentioned so I wanted to recommend them here:
- AskMe by Alensin: How can I access comics as a blind fan? which also inspired this MeFi post by jessamyn: Comics for the blind. "There's only one voice: the voice in your head."
- AskMe by phunniemee: What's playing at the Crone Island multiplex?: "Seeking movies where women work together and win!"
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 11:10 PM on July 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thanks for upping the amount of occult content in the podcast, robocop is bleeding! And I did know you had Made It as a wood artisan! That is excellent.

Also, whoa, https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/faqz">Informed Delivery! Hoping the next iteration of that lets you remotely shred the mail you don't want before it leaves the sorting center.
posted by ignignokt at 6:37 AM on July 3, 2017

(Oh, man. And I have been doing HTML for 21 years.)
posted by ignignokt at 6:44 AM on July 3, 2017

- I'm very interested in reading the genderswap fanfic of Captain America and Bucky by banjo_and_the_pork! Please point me where to go (either here or mefimail?) and I'm there.

The published parts can be found here on her AOOO page.

robocop, where can I listen to your podcast?

I don't have a podcast of my own, just a bunch of Hopes and Notions. While it would be fun to do a Lore style approach regarding weirdo conspiracy theories (Shaver Mystery, Montauk, Secret Space Program, etc), I'm not sure how listenable it'd be - it might work better as a Last Podcast style conversation between two or more people. There are certain through-lines to these theories that build upon each other like some sort of improv game. With the Secret Space Program in particular, we can actually see the conspiracy get formed in realtime. Niche listening, I'm sure.

Thanks for upping the amount of occult content in the podcast, robocop is bleeding! And I did know you had Made It as a wood artisan! That is excellent.

I'm not even a very good occultist, just a magpie of factiods and imagery. It worked for Austin Osman Spare, though, so maybe it will work for me. I have a grimoire I've been going around on, a Cunning Folk style approach to the magic of the colonial Miskatonic settlements. Again, niche reading, but it's been fun filling notebooks with ramblings about Othic Energy and how to use it to fuel workings.

I wish I could have mentioned the May 24th 'A conversation on the state of Paganism' thread, but it would have been outside the scope of the podcast.

Also thanks to everyone who has said nice stuff about my work and looked me up on social media. This has been a pretty busy weekend for me as a result!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:28 AM on July 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Basement nest!
posted by ellieBOA at 12:59 PM on July 3, 2017

Robocop, you should get the audiobooks to Ben Aaronovitch's books about the London policeman who is also a novice wizard. The stories (first book is "Midnight Riot" in the USA, I believe) are very good but tue audiobook performer makes them AWESOME.
posted by wenestvedt at 4:15 PM on July 3, 2017

Also, of the three posters you sent me, mine hangs over my desk at home, one went to MeFite ursus comiter, and the third hangs in my sister's house in St. Paul, Minnesota.

There's also one in the windownof the shop at Trinity Rep theater in downtown Providence, RI; you must have a fan there!
posted by wenestvedt at 4:17 PM on July 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Pedant note: The thing you (or possibly ghosts, one supposes) slide around a Ouija board is a planchette and not, as Jessamyn said, a plantain, which is a type of large starchy banana popular in Caribbean cuisine.

Still, created a very pleasing mental image.
posted by Dext at 9:31 AM on July 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

The extra-special superstition around Ouija Boards is definitely a real thing. My mom - nominally a Christian, but a member of one of the most open-mineded, GLBT-lead churches in the country since her youth - has been totally accepting of everything her heathen child has thrown at her: UFOs and ghosts as a kid, atheism and a somewhat embarrassing zeal for active skepticism as a teen, polite dismissal of all religious and spiritual things now.

But, she made it very clear to me from birth that Ouija Boards are not a joking around matter. "Don't mess with Ouija boards" was a "don't throw rocks through the neighbors' windows" or "don't stick things in the wall socket" level offense when I was a kid. I didn't actually care about Ouija boards, so I didn't bother to challenge it until I met someone who had one as an adult. (The result was really disappointing. If that's the best the dead can do, we're better off letting them be.) But, I'm pretty sure using a Ouija board is the only spiritual or religious-related thing I could have done that would have actually offended her.

Despite knowing more than my fair share of early 20th century occult geeks, I've never really understood why they've garnered a special place in American culture. I sure hope it's not because of The Exorcist. I tried to re-watch it a few years ago, having been fascinated and freaked out by it as a kid. . . and it holds up less well than any film I've ever seen. Sitting alone at home and wearing headphones, I felt embarrassed to be an audience member. I wish I hadn't tried to watch it again; my memory of it was so much better than the film actually is.

I was going to say something snarky about the grilled cheese burger. Then I remembered that I bribed a donut-and-everything shop worker to make me a teriyaki cake-donut turkey burger once. . . so I have no high ground upon which to stand.
posted by eotvos at 9:33 AM on July 5, 2017

Reading the threat. . . I totally want to play spirit boards with plantains now. Local meetup theme?
posted by eotvos at 9:36 AM on July 5, 2017

Meant to say thread, of course. Though, perhaps the spirits guided my fingers on the keyboard.
posted by eotvos at 10:01 AM on July 5, 2017

spirit boards with plantains

Never understood the a peel.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:54 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Still, created a very pleasing mental image.

Hahaha, yes. I knew I had that word right as I started it but did not stick the landing. Thank you!
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 5:53 PM on July 5, 2017

[I feel the need to confirm in advance that this isn't sarcasm or backhanded in some way]

This makes the second time that I know of that I've been mentioned in the podcast. I was just as shocked to see my name in the list this time as I was last time.

And then I was very amused to listen through and hear:

cortex: "Let's see, what's next. Oh. komara. He is a person that exists."
jessamyn: "Yes! He's definitely a guy that exists! He once did a thing."
cortex: "In fact ..."
[insert visual of squirrel running by]
cortex: "... wow okay so anyway let's see, we were talking about ... definitely the next topic, whatever it was."

okay no but seriously, thanks for being supportive of those of us who contribute to Projects. cortex can testify that I'm usually writing an email to the mods like, "Hey, I'm doing a dumb stupid thing that is dumb. Is it too dumb to be on Projects?" and he says, "What is wrong with you go post it already" and I really appreciate that. Having it mentioned on the podcast is just an extra helping of reassurance that it's not a dumb thing.
posted by komara at 11:26 AM on July 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

komara quit standing around yakkin and go post more of your pictures for my eyeballs to enjoy ok
posted by wenestvedt at 5:44 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hah! I been busy shooting for a local coffee shop as well as getting some product images for the hardcover for the book. Did I mention there's now a hardcover? Or more specifically there's 7 copies out of 20 remaining because the rest done been sold.
posted by komara at 7:07 PM on July 6, 2017 [2 favorites]