Episode 29: We prefer movies at home
Courn: Welcome to Neurotakes, I'm Courn!
Chase: This is Chase!
Courn: Let's get into it.
Chase: Did you listen to the new Tyler the Creator album?
Courn: Yeah.
Chase: I did too.
Courn: It's pretty good. It's pretty good.
Chase: It is really good. You're a bigger fan than I am, so I'm curious to hear like your thoughts on it and commentary around the songs and the whole project.
Courn: Yeah, I feel like I don't have the skills to like properly like critique music or I just don't have that like, I don't know.
Chase: Knowledge base?
Courn: Yeah, or like the right words and stuff but I like the album. I didn't like lumberjack that much. Like it was fine.
Chase: The song?
Courn: No, like the last album.
Chase: Oh, the last album.
Chase: Okay. Yeah.
Courn: I didn't like that album that much just cause it was a little too like aggressive for me to listen to, but like, I see it has artistic value.
Chase: Right.
Courn: I liked the new album more. Chromokopia. Is that the correct name?
Chase: Yeah. Chromokopia.
Courn: Chromacopia!
Chase: Is there a meaning behind that? Or does that mean something? Do you know?
Courn: I don't know. I think it's like a most of his stuff kind of has like a like a altar. What's the word? Like he's putting on a persona. I mean obviously like with the chrome mask and stuff and he's like putting.
Chase: Alter ego?
Courn: Yeah that's the word I was trying to say. Persona. Like he's like an alter ego and stuff. But yeah, I quite liked it. It reminds me of some elements of like Flower Boy. Definitely reminds me of Igor, but it's definitely a lot more like, I don't know, rappy. But there's some really good features on there. A few really good songs on there I really like. Obviously his lyrics have gotten better over the years.
Chase: Yes, would you like to give us an example?
Courn: Yeah, well, is it Goblin? I think is the album back in the day that used the F word like eight-
Chase: The F slur?
Courn: Yeah, like 8 different times.
Chase: Yeah.
Courn: The F slur.
Chase: Yeah. And that was a definite commentary as he dropped this album and happened to also come out.
Courn: I don't even know what that was I was trying to Google that and see if there was an official I mean he's always put like kind of like little questionable things in his songs, I mean I don't think that's an excuse to make blatantly homophobic music.
Chase: By no means.
Courn: No, but I feel like he has turned himself around. I'm not the person to gauge whether or not he should be accepted for the shit he did in the past, but I listened to his stuff and I like it.
Chase: Yeah, I like the album. It was solid. I like the lyrics are really good. I'm not as big of a fan but I think because of like FOMO I was like oh let me listen to it and see plus knowing that you're a huge fan I was like oh let me check it out and see but yeah good lyrics, there's definitely some really good songs. Sticky is great.
Courn: Yeah!
Chase: Getting sticky!
Courn: Yeah it's pretty good. For me no album will ever hit as hard as Igor. That was like my favorite album of all time.
Chase: That's so fair.
Courn: I should have bought tickets and I didn't and I still regret it to this day. Like literally, you know, every single word to every song in that album. That was just my favorite album of all time.
Chase: Yeah, that was a good present. You got me that on vinyl. That's a good time.
Courn: I will talk about album till the end of the world because I love it.
Chase: Yeah, I feel like his stuff was always a little kind of weird.
Courn: Oh yeah. Definitely!
Chase: Not mainstream, right? And so I think for me that was always hard to like get into but no I'm here for like the art and I think people have talked about his projects have like really grown and changed as he's grown and changed and like I know that's kind of how artists do a lot of their work in general. It's like a lot of like self-reflection and like reflection on the world and all that stuff. So it was interesting to hear just like online commentary saying like this feels like his most mature work. And like realizing that all of his friends are like growing up and having families and all he has is a Rari. He's like I just got this big like Ferrari in this car and sneakers and was like, that's it? And I was like, okay. So I don't know, but it's solid.
Courn: I feel like he's 1 of the few artists that's had very solid, very album progression. He just consistently put out very good and strong albums and really improves in a lot of ways.
Chase: I can respect that!
Courn: I mean, even just putting out that many albums, I feel like it's a big deal. I don't know for a major artist. I feel like some artists, they have like 1 album and that's kind of it. And then it's just everything's downhill from there.
Chase: Yeah. Or they have 1 major album and like, that's it. That's true. Cause his first album is 2011 and then 2013, 2015, like he's consistently every couple years every few years.
Courn: Yeah, I mean from flower boy. It's all been very solid for me, that's what I really got into listening to Tyler and that was a lot when but I don't know there's a lot of critique around his older albums and stuff. Totally valid.
Chase: Totally.
Courn: I just think he's an interesting persona. I love that video of him where like, it's like a fake video of him with the toaster and just yelling at this lady.
Chase: I haven't seen it.
Courn: Okay, I'm gonna send it to you after. I can't remember the exact words, but it's just so freaking funny.
Chase: I love it.
Courn: He's just definitely like a character.
Chase: For sure and like definitely not mainstream which I think a lot of people loved about him and stuff. Yeah I'm here for it.
Courn: Wish he wasn't main so mainstream that he had to play at the biggest venues and that they were too overstimulating for me.
Chase: And so expensive.
Courn: Yeah!
Chase: Those tour tickets I heard were hundreds of dollars for like the basic shit.
Courn: Yeah, the nosebleeds are like whatever. I think the bad ones were like 150. Which I'm used to spending like 30 40 dollars on a ticket like-
Chase: Especially around here.
Courn: Yeah there's no way in hell I would ever do like floor seating and stand there for 4 hours. I would actually die.
Chase: That's the thing, you just gotta start to save up and shell out the money to have a good experience at the concert now. Like my client talks about that because I think he saw a couple like rock bands. Same thing, he like didn't get like the best seats and he's like, what's the point? He's like, if I'm gonna go see them, like I need a good seat to like enjoy the show.
Courn: That's actually so fair.
Chase: And I was like, dang.
Courn: I'm not that person. I'm not gonna spend.
Chase: Not yet.
Courn: I'm not gonna spend a thousand dollars unless it was like the artist that I wanted to see.
Chase: Number 1 fan. Yeah, you'd love the, yeah, for sure. It sounds like he's also like really entertaining right, like he's an entertaining performer which I think is really cool-
Courn: People boo him! Like he just has such a good like I don't know what's the word?
Chase: Stage presence?
Courn: Yeah or like a between him and the people I can't even-
Chase: Like a dialogue and interaction with the audience?
Courn: Yeah, like I just think he has such a good relationship with his audience that it's really funny to watch. Like I love watching Tyler play.
Chase: Yeah, like he doesn't like do like crowd work, but kind of along those lines, right? I think, wasn't somebody he was like, oh, this guy in the back, like I want you to shake your ass to the song or something!
Courn: I didn't see that but yeah!
Chase: There was like some clip he's like oh this dude in the back, didn't say dude but you know, and was just like I see your sign when that beat drops you better shake your motherfucking ass.
Courn: Yeah he's just very serious and deadpan too. Yeah I love that type of humor.
Chase: So here for it here for it so I thought it would be fun to talk about more media because that's such a big topic that we can come back to over and over. Music in general is a huge topic.
Courn: We both consume so much media. I think a lot of people do. I think that's, I don't know. That's one of my primary interests in life.
Chase: Not even just neurodivergent, ADHD, autistic folks just like.
Courn: No, everyone loves content. We all want content now, now, now. Yeah.
Chase: Yeah. I did not realize music was a stim.
Courn: Yeah?
Chase: Yeah. Let's get into that. Like, especially EDM. I feel like I didn't realize like mashups like my brain. Like, especially when I was in the office. I'm just like bobbing around like working. But once I was at a computer, I listened to so much more music. I think now I do less cause I'm in session. It's like overstimulating, but yeah-
Courn: I've always been so into music. Like the very first day I got my little iPod Nano. Oh my God. It can only hold like 60 songs or whatever but oh that's like all I did-
Chase: 4 albums yeah with 1 gigabyte of music!
Courn: That’s all I needed because literally I listened to the same song just over and over again and I still wouldn't know the lyrics there's-
Chase: Yeah there's some like foster the people album like 1 of their first albums I listened to it because it came out and I had my iPod. I listened to that thing non-stop. Like I would be walking to school, walking back, listening to it just like every single day. I could still, it's memorized to this day.
Courn: Yeah.
Chase: So I feel you. Now Spotify's got, it's like tracking, so it'll tell you how many times like oh you listen to the song how many times 1 day and I'm like ouch, called out!
Courn: It was really sad being in like the 1th percentile for people who listen to music like of too much quantity-
Chase: Oh what do you mean?
Courn: Like I listen more hours than whatever 99%, 99.9% of people on Spotify. I'm always listening to music. Like, yeah, I'm just that type of person who always has music on.
Chase: Which is wild cause I imagine a lot of people are the same way.
Courn: Yeah. That’s what I thought!
Chase: Especially working from home, no?
Courn: That's what I thought. I don't know. Some people don't really listen to that much music.
Chase: Dang.
Courn: I just, music has always been a really big part of my life. I just love having sound in the background. I think it's just like a very ADHD thing for me. Like when I'm working, I like to have the right playlist and stuff. I'm not gonna listen to like super upbeat music when I'm like, I don't know, trying to relax and stuff. But I don't like sitting in silence, never have. So I just always have music playing on the TV, playing in my headphones, playing on the computer. It's just like so big for me.
Chase: Yeah, how do you feel about the sensory of like headphones versus earbuds?
Courn: You know, I feel like I'm in a unpopular segment, but I've always liked earbuds better. And I know a lot of autistic people like over the ear headphones. I hate the feeling of things around my head. Never liked it, but obviously used to have headphones back in the day. Like that's what I grew up with. Earbuds didn't come out, whatever, until I was more like-
Chase: Those really, really shitty apple ones that were the circles it was putting a penny in your ear!
Courn: We didn’t even have apple we had like the 2 dollar skull candy ones that blow your ears!
Chase: Those are so fire, listen to those very loudly yeah that bass was good in those!
Courn: Yah yeah I'm pretty sure that's why we all have hearing damage.
Chase: I heard on Tiktok someone say that!
Courn: Yeah!
Chase: That’s the exact reason we have hearing damage is skull candy earbuds!
Courn: I've lost so much music all the time in those. But yeah, I like in-the-ear headphones. It doesn't mean they're comfy to me. Like my ideal thing would be not wearing headphones at all but I’m usually wearing noise cancelling headphones when I'm out and about for like sensory reasons so it's just like why wouldn't I just do that they're a lot more inconspicuous and easier to travel with-
Chase: For sure! Oh yeah the space over the ear 1 so over here is kind of comfy but I can't like Fidget my head and like move around as much. Yeah, so I do feel like I like the like in-ear ones more.
Courn: Something just about over the year I know my ears are really sensitive and I don't like hair touching them-
Chase: The bridge on your head like when it's like stress on your head for too long.
Courn: Yeah, I've never been like a super big fan of that.
Chase: Yeah I would I remember when Spotify came out with New Music Friday and I would obsessively listen to like all the new stuff that came out and like all the new stuff that dropped on a Friday and my friend group would be like, oh did you listen? Did you pick out that? We'd like compare songs and stuff. Music has been a huge part of life just in general.
Courn: Yeah, I don't know, that just revolved a lot around like friendships growing up. I just didn't have a lot of topics I could feel like I could talk to with other kids. Like, I feel like I just didn't have the same interest. No 1 would hear about Pokemon and dogs, but music was always a big thing.
Chase: Interesting.
Courn: But like, I didn't really like a lot of the big mainstream music. Like I feel like I had a phase in middle school where we're all like into like Tao Cruz and like Kanye West and stuff like that. And like, that was like, that was like my golden era of being able to bond with other kids.
Chase: Travi McCoy.
Courn: Yeah. So cringy.
Chase: Billionaire.
Courn: I hate that song. I hate the music of that era so bad, but it's so catchy.
Chase: It's nostalgic. I still listen to it sometimes.
Courn: But I really just remember like editing the dance playlist with like 1 of the more popular girls at school and I was just like oh I'm like in the cool crowd now. They came to my house so I could burn the CD for the dance.
Chase: Ooh, not me thinking I was a DJ because I could create a playlist with the little like transitions on the right timing. And I was like, yeah, I'm basically a disc jockey.
Courn: I used to make mashups all the time. And like I-
Chase: Okay the mashups tickle an ADHD brain so well. Come on.
Courn: That's why like a part of me would love to go to the club just for that aspect, but I don't want people to be there. I don't want it to be loud. I just want to hear the mashups.
Chase: I'll make you mashups.
Courn: Yeah.
Chase: I'll mash you up.
Courn: Mash me up. Corn mash?
Chase: Corn dog mash?
Courn: Corn hash? I was like, I thought that was a thing.
Chase: I'm sorry. My wife is somebody who needs to listen to music for the lyrics, and I am not. How do you feel?
Courn: Okay. Well, I just have like really bad auditory processing, so I never know what people are saying in songs. It's gotten worse because I feel like everyone's singing in cursive and like especially rapping. I feel like they like whatever stress consonants that aren't there. So it's very confusing to me.
Chase: Or they remove them. They remove letters to hit the beat better.
Courn: My most embarrassing thing as a kid is that I would study lyrics for hours because I wanted to be able to sing with kids on the bus and at dances. And I could never pick up the lyrics no matter how many times I listened to a song. I'd get like, you know, obviously the chorus. Oh my god. I remember practicing American Boy for like almost 10 hours. And that's like 1 of the only songs I can do from start to finish still.
Chase: I love it. I love it.
Courn: Because I practice it so much. I do with every Drake song because I wanted to be cool and sing in the car rides.
Chase: Same, same.
Courn: And it was so hard!
Chase: That's how I felt with Lil Wayne.
Courn: Yeah. But no, I don't know. Just kids at school would just like pick up the lyrics so quick. Maybe they're all lying!
Chase: Okay yeah, do people just listen to the lyrics and like hear them and then they just know him cuz I always picked up like the melody and the beat and like the ding ding ding, and like that piece and like like the timing of that and then I had to like look at the lyrics, listen to it. I had to like listen to it like 5 or 6 times because I would never know and I feel like my friends would just be like and they just like had the lyrics real quick.
Courn: Yeah a minimum.
Chase: That's wild.
Courn: That's why I find it funny when people like listen to music for the lyrics because half the time I can't hear it and even songs I really like, I don't even know what the words really mean.
Chase: I'm also not listening to the lyrics. I mean for some stuff like there's like a little more artistic like direction with their lyrics that's cool but-
Courn: I respect people are good at lyrics. Raymond's the type who'd be like oh my god I love Cordae because I love like the verses he says like it's just so clever and stuff and I'm like I don't know what he's saying. And I'm like
Chase: Okay. Okay buddy.
Courn: Okay. Sure. I just like don't get that stuff but that's cool. That's cool. Wish I could hear honestly.
Chase: I wish I could hear.
Courn: I just don't know what they're saying so it's all about the vibes for me but I think the funniest thing was me trying to get into like k-pop and like musics of other languages because it just amplifies it so much like-
Chase: Yes! I had a spanish language music phase oh!
Courn: I hate it, I've no like it's it's even like 300% harder to try to memorize obviously-
Chase: And it's like a different cadence to yes it's rough!
Courn: Yeah!
Chase: So you know some some kpop songs, you can karaoke?
Courn: No.
Chase: That's how my cousin always since says karaoke, if you're listening to this, I'm teasing you. She always says it in like karaoke.
Courn: You know, I don’t know if that’s a microaggression?
Chase: White as hell, I love you cuz. Cracksme up.
Courn: It's really annoying though as I've been learning Korean, I thought I would pick up like Korean songs and obviously K-pop songs are a little bit different because they're like there's a lot of mix of English in there too and they're more like slow cadence but I get so upset when songs play like for intros for our k dramas and stuff and I can't understand a single word because something about the cadence of singing and my auditory processing isn't good. Even though I've been learning Korean for like 2 years, like picking up spoken dialogue is so much easier than songs. But then we watched a K-drama where they had like a fake kids show and they were doing songs on the kids show. And I was like, oh, this is just my jam. And Raymond was just-
Chase: Slower pace!
Courn: Yeah, Raymond was making fun of me cause they were just like counting and like talking about location.
Chase: It's like a way slower like yeah.
Courn: Yeah. It's like you know like Dora. Level. Yeah. And I was like-
Chase: But that's a good like progression to getting to like the more music and stuff. Bro you gonna be fluent in Korean in like 5 years.
Courn: I doubt that. Maybe like 10. I'm just really not a good-
Chase: You're already 2 years in, so 8 more years?
Courn: I'm not a good language learner. I'd have to like immerse myself and like actually-
Chase: That's the true way to do it.
Courn: Honestly, but it'd just be cool to be able to write it and like auditory listen. Like speaking isn't that big of a deal to me it's more just like I want to I don't know connect more and be able to read it so.
Chase: Look at you!
Courn: But I'm really not there I'm at third grade level according to King Sejong Institute.
Chase: I love it.
Courn: Which is only passing like a single course but for doing it on my own I'm gonna take it.
Chase: Well before we go into like the reading and writing because you actually talked about that I did want to touch on like how much influence TikTok has had on songs and music because it's so wild and I think our generation probably sees it the most. Folks younger than us probably don't notice it and then folks older are probably like, what even is happening? But like we're caught in the middle of that.
Courn: Yeah. Well, I feel like that's like half the songs I end up listening to now, or at least the ones I end up repeating, especially as like vocal stims is always ends up being like TikTok audios and songs and it's just really interesting because then that becomes like it's weird looking at the top charts on Spotify because I've like sometimes I'll put them on for my partner.
Chase: Just TikTok music.
Courn: Yes and it's like not good music.
Chase: It's only good for that loop like they make it good for the loop of like 30 seconds or 15 or whatever and like the rest of it kind of yeah.
Courn: Yeah and I know millennials always have so many qualms because they're like oh like this is a song I grew up with you guys are just singing that 1 part-
Chase: And like sampling it now!
Courn: Yeah I'm like okay!
Chase: All music is sampled every time!
Courn: Correct!
Chase: Everyone there's no original music!
Courn: Correct!
Chase: Everyone samples what like like like even like the 20s and 30s and 40s.
Courn: Yeah, what's that chord that's like in every single pop song that they always like to like bring out? I'm like, yeah, I don't know music well enough to do that. But-
Chase: Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm really into the Glorillasong right now. Yeah, she goes eugh, eugh-
Courn: It's really good.
Chase: It's so good on my brain. I'm just like, I've been listening to like 5 times on the way to the grocery store, just like over and over.
Courn: Yeah, I think TikTok audios are responsible for like me sounding like I have brain rot at all times because literally anyone brings up a single word in a conversation. I know we're all doing that, but it just hits a certain thing. With autistic ADHD people who have those vocal stems, like you just can't stop. My partner literally hates me half the time, not seriously, because I would just get something in my phrase, vocabulary and will not stop for a week.
Chase: Correct. I had the BBL Drizzy for weeks to the point where even I was just like, oh God, I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop. And I was like, low in the lawn.
Courn: I finally got over the long legs audio and my partner was so thankful, but then he started bringing it back. And then he started doing it whenever the dogs come in from outside, they're like, let me in now! And he knows I can't stop, like I have to do the whole phrase monologue in standing position, just like long legs.
Chase: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it doesn't really matter, but it's like almost like a chicken or the egg like I wonder how many people have like realized they vocal stim because, do neurotypicals vocal stim, do they stem at all?
Courn: I mean yeah I mean okay I mean yeah because it's like a self-soothing behavior so technically anyone can stim in that aspect but it is like kind of like vocabulary that's specific to neurodivergent people but it's not just autistic and ADHD.
Chase: Okay cool I wasn't sure if it's like we all then flock to the app or if like the app kind of draws us or a little bit of both versus of like people who use it but I guess everybody could.
Courn: Yeah but they have I've seen studies that have shown that like a rise of people having like vocal tics and stuff because of TikTok, because it can like ignite stuff sooner.
Chase: Just the power of like your, of auditory processing. It's massive.
Courn: Yeah, I mean, we don't know all the studies, you know. Seeing that type of content all the time yeah definitely just short form content definitely does stuff to your brain, probably not the best stuff but-
Chase: It's not I guess friendly if you have a hearing disability.
Courn: That's like all of tiktok what is up with like the lack of like captioning and stuff it's like actually so bad-
Chase: There should be a standard spot where captions go. Cause sometimes-
Courn: They have that bottom spot where the self-
Chase: You can't see it.
Courn: Yeah. And it's hard to read and it's always wrong.
Chase: Yeah. And it's like hard. Yeah. That's not good.
Courn: But there's literally so many big creators who just post long form content without captions.
Chase: I scroll past it. I'm not going to watch it.
Courn: Yeah. I'm like, what the fuck is this?
Chase: I'm not, no, I scroll past it.
Courn: Especially when there's like, I literally, my least favorite thing about TikTok, and I think everyone does this, is when they have audios that say 1 thing and then the trend is putting something else on screen. Like that's just a very popular format of like, it's just an audio and then you put your text to whatever the point is that you're trying to say over it. And I feel like it's half of TikToks now and I find I have to watch them like 30 times. So I'm like, wait, what do you mean the audio doesn't line up with what you're trying to say? And I'm trying to understand that it's a meme.
Chase: Oh yeah, that's wild.
Courn: And it seems like a very inherent thing that neurotypical people would get, but I'm always just frustrated. So I try to avoid doing audios where it doesn't line up with what I'm saying. I don't know.
Chase: You have a pretty good caption system in yours. I like your little like animations with your little squigglies and the half arch.
Courn: It takes a lot of time but I just get so bored like I, there's so many talking videos people have really good points that I won't watch just because they're so boring and I will even speed them up to like 2x I wish I could go even faster!
Chase: Oh the speed is so nice! I will say.
Courn: I wish Instagram had that why is there no speed?
Chase: I don't know because I'd went to do it 1 day and I was like wait why isn't this working? I was like what the heck!
Courn: Yeah, you can't even like move around on the video too if it's less than a minute 30 on Instagram so you can't like like I don't know-
Chase: Scroll come back!
Courn: Yeah!
Chase: That's that's weird I also will go through phases of listening to an artist for so long and then just like dropped off and never again.
Courn: Correct.
Chase: Like kind of like food.
Courn: It is kind of like a hyper fixation thing.
Chase: Yeah. And then it kind of ruins it though. And you're just like, uhhh.
Courn: I know I kind of hate that. Like I don't know, I'll get super hyper fixated on ours. Only listen to them for like, you know, like 6 months. And then I just never listened to them again. It actually makes me so sad because I had such a deep obsession with the Twilight soundtrack. I was that person.
Chase: Of course you were.
Courn: I had it like, I had a whole thing on CD and there's no reason for me to have a CD because I also bought it on iTunes. And me, just imagine me with my little scene hair, purple bow, in my room…supermassive black hole! And then me doing the little Twilight baseball leg yeah I know those movies are problematic but-
Chase: Yeah very nostalgic for a whole generation.
Courn: The soundtrack, the hold that soundtrack had on me.
Chase: Yeah, I love listening to soundtracks outside of the movie because it's kind of like listening to the movie in short form.
Courn: It brings you back to it.
Chase: Yeah. Gosh. And like every now and then I'll go oh I forgot about that movie and then I go listen to soundtrack I'm like yeah!
Courn: Yeah it's like it's so good!
Chase: Not me with like Charlie's Angels listening to the soundtrack!
Courn: I've never even watched that movie.
Chase: The first like 2000s remakes are so bad, so sexualized.
Courn: Oh I'm sure that's the one with like Lucy Liu?
Chase: Gay chase loved that shit, yeah which one?
Courn: Is that the one with Lucy Liu?
Chase: Yes and Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz!
Courn: Yeah!
Chase: Not my dad showing those videos to me or those movies to me when I was like 8 years old-
Courn: You’re like wow, I really like Charlie’s Angels!
Chase: Yeah when she reaches over in the drive through she reaches over the drive through and it's just like tight ass jeans just like in front of the camera just like booty right on I was like *smacks lips* !
Courn: Not bad, not bad!
Chase: Yeah and then you wonder why I'm gay. No, that didn't turn me gay, but it awoken something.
Courn: Didn't help.
Chase: Correct. But I mean, a lot of artists also make music to get popular on TikTok to blow them up to then like accelerate their career, which is so wild. Or just like 1 hit wonders, right? They make like a Tik ok banger and then just never do anything.
Courn: Symphony. I feel like that. I'm sorry. All the other. I don't even think that song is good, but it's just so funny. Just symphony! That had a hold on me.
Chase: That's an actual song outside of TikTok? I hate that song.
Courn: Their tour blew up because of that.
Chase: But then they have no other good music. And then that was the guy who did, it was right around BBL Drizzy, but like apparently he's like really bad outside of that 1 sample or the 1 song he did or something like he's not good. And so everyone was like, ooh, ooh. And it was just awkward because his concerts were like kind of empty. It's not good.
Courn: My favorite artist I found on TikTok was Hemlocke Springs. Who like their song Girlfriend was like a really big Stem song for me. I know a lot of people. Oh, so good! And consistently every song they've put out since is literally the best. And I think they're probably 1 of my favorite artists of all time even though they don't have that big of albums.
Chase: What's the... is it the band... I think they're European... Manskin or something they do that like yeah I can't remember but there's like a couple where I'm like oh and they go listen to the other stuff like people became fans of them because of that because the other good existing music that's the 1 like I can't even imitate it now-
Courn: Yeah I don't know what that is.
Chase: Have you heard have you seen those videos I took up with what's that song and it goes yeah and someone's like oh is this? Yeah! That's so cool though
Courn: That's something super obscure, no that's so funny!
Chase: Do you have a current artist you're fixated on?
Courn: Yes.
Chase: Oh, what is it?
Courn: The Last Dinner Party. I only found them a couple weeks ago.
Chase: I don't even know them.
Courn: They're like top popular popular song is Nothing Matters.
Chase: You like a lot of like indie shit.
Courn: I do. I really don't know how to describe my music taste. I like weird things.
Chase: It's a little weird.
Courn: I love weird songs.
Chase: That's fine. That’s okay!
Courn: So yeah. I have very varied listening tastes. So I like a lot of rap and I like a lot of like popular music.
Chase: Are they like, are they indie? They rock? Are they?
Courn: They're like an indie band. I don't even know how to describe that.
Chase: Indie Rockets is what their playlist is on or what they have.
Courn: My Spotify made me a playlist that was called Doof Doof McBling. Which I thought-
Chase: Was that on the daily list or whatever?
Courn: Yeah, and I just thought that was AI mumbo jumbo, but turns out those are actual terms that like doof Doof is like, I think it was like a type of electronica sub-genre.
Chase: Oh, I didn't know that.
Courn: And McBling was also a type of like whatever electronica something term. I could be completely wrong, but it was like, they were actual terms when you looked them up. It turns out that's because I just kept listening to like, I was listening to a lot of Chapelle Roan, which then kept getting me recommended Charlie XCX, which isn't really like my type of EDM. But yeah, then I just have Doof Doof McBling. And that's just a funny joke with me and Raymond every time he's like, you listen to the Doof Doof McBling-
Chase: Doof Doof McBling. I like it. I had a hard or a small rave EDM phase listening to just like head banging like do do do du duh!
Courn: I'm really glad I never had that phase. I had my da rude sandstorm phase-
Chase: It was right after college.
Courn: Phase like numa numa like old school electronica, particularly European, oh my god-
Chase: Like yeah more like techno and stuff. Sand storm.
Courn: Satisfaction like I loved that shit I also have a big love for 80s music cuz that's what my dad used to play growing up so I like old school stuff.
Chase: Satisfaction! Yeah Benny Benassi is solid, yeah that was solid!
Courn: Push me and then just touch me, yeah it's so good! It's so good!
Chase: There's been so many like samples and remakes of Sandstorm too. What is that? How you would describe your music taste though? Is doof doof McBain?
Courn: No, no. I think like for a while it always gave me like beach pop, beach indie pop.
Chase: Yeah. I could see that for you.
Courn: But I like listen, I always get 3 different playlists on my Spotify, whatever for my daily mixes. 1 is like the pop, indie pop that I feel is like the last dinner party, Chappell Roan, like Hemlock Springs, like kind of indie pop. And then 1 will always just be like random, crappy, like rap, like a lot of early Drake and Kanye and then my third place is always like 80s music because I just love like Bonnie Tyler like-
Chase: That’s so wild!
Courn: Old school like 80s pop so-
Chase: This is 1 of the few things we don't have in common is our music taste.
Courn: No but I'm such a snob about music and I hate it because I think I have the best music taste. And that's just-
Chase: I used to also think I was so unique and had the most unique music taste.
Courn: Yeah, I'm still a little bit hateful on like general music. I am a Taylor Swift fan through and, no, I'm a Taylor Swift hater through-
Chase: Thank you!
Courn: Oh my gosh. I gotta re-say that.
Chase: Oh my gosh.
Courn: I am still a Taylor Swift hater through and through because I've never liked any of her new music. I liked You Belong With Me and then that was it.
Chase: That's the same. That's literally the only 1.
Courn: It got so bad.
Chase: Red?
Courn: It's so bad.
Chase: Yeah, it was not good.
Courn: I don't like New Billie Eilish. Like I really don't.
Chase: I’ve heard she's also not like, a lot of appropriation. Like as much as I am impressed by her voice like-
Courn: I'm like sabrina carpenter's fine a few of her songs but what if it's just very boring-
Chase: It's just pop it's not my favorite, but.
Courn: Yeah I could go on forever but I won't.
Chase: Literally I know like we could make a whole episode on on music itself.
Courn: I just, hard no on country and that will always be my hard no. I'll listen about anything but that.
Chase: There's only a couple like Hawaiian reggae artists that go country and it's the only 1 I listen to now. But I dated a guy who was really into country and so then I became a country fan. Yeah, talk about molding to the person.
Courn: That should be a poster for comp het. You'll date a man and he'll get you into country music!
Chase: Yeah, country music is all comp/het, isn't it? Yeah, dang.
Courn: I guess eventually we got to books, only took us the-
Chase: Whole episode.
Courn: You were like, oh before we go into books and then continues on for 20 minutes.
Chase: No, I can use that as a segue. Yeah. I know this was like the longest segue from books cuz you're like, oh I can't wait to like read and write Korean and I was like, oh books! So we're finally making our way back around to that tangent. I would have said that I never liked to read as a kid and I think we've touched on this a little bit but I've rediscovered a love of reading as an adult.
Courn: I love that you rediscovered a love for it. Yeah.
Chase: Not for novels. It's not for like typical literature. It's only graphic novels now.
Courn: No, old books are boring. Yeah, I will take that to my grave. I read a lot growing up, but I also read so much short form content, like so much YA. Like I read a lot of YA romance, but people thought that it made you really smart as a kid if you read a lot, but no 1 was looking at the stuff I was reading. I was reading stupid stuff.
Chase: Smut?
Courn: Yeah. I didn't actually, you know, I didn't read smut in high school cause I didn't really know it existed.
Chase: Would you have?
Courn: Oh for sure. Oh for sure. Although me and my friend did read 50 Shades of Grey because I was like-
Chase: I remember reading parts of it, yeah.
Courn: Yeah and I remember we both were like oh yeah we skipped the sex scenes. I didn't skip that. I read that 3 times. We laughed about this last year because we talked about it and she was like, no, I didn't skip that.
Chase: We just said we skipped it. You heard it here first. I love that.
Courn: Yeah, my dirty pleasure is that I read a lot of smutty stuff and I actually found out that so many people do. It's so funny. But no 1 wants to talk about it. But I'm like, you just see with book tok, how many, it's particularly women that are coming out and being like reading all these like dark romances. That's not necessarily my thing. I don't read a lot of romances. I'm really into manga and comics and that kind of-
Chase: Is that how you say it?
Courn: Yeah. I never knew that. Manga? Manga?
Chase: Oh, I don't know.
Courn: I actually don't know what's the-
Chase: Oh, I don't know. Manga? I was gonna take your word for it. Manga's right. I don't know.
Chase: I was gonna take your word for it.
Courn: Yeah, I think it's manga. But I always feel like a weeb when I say that because that's not Korean.
Chase: I know. That's why I was like, let me just throw this in here.
Courn: People just say like comics. It's like the same way people say cartoons instead of like or like animation instead of anime. It's just specific to where it's coming from.
Chase: Yeah. I mean I found myself as a kid reading books like Captain Underpants, but those are like way shorter for me. They had like pictures in them and I those I got through no problem but yeah, once I started getting to like high school levels of reading like to kill a mockingbird and oh oike Fahrenheit 151 and all the terrible what's the 1 with the kids who kill each other?
Courn: Oh, it's the island one!
Chase: Yeah, anyways that like that I struggle because I can't comprehend a lot of text but yeah, I love reading some graphic novels now and I do read a lot of non-fiction because yeah I'm a fucking nerd.
Courn: Yeah I read a lot of everything. I will say I feel like I do I read less than I used to I have gone through phases where I will like read a couple books a week and stuff the thing is they have to be like really interesting topics to me and I would like I got a really good kick of like horror books and I'd switch out with romance books but I've just been consistently reading like comics for like 5 years straight. That's what I read every night. I probably put in like 2 hours.
Chase: Dang.
Courn: And it's like a good mix. I like some entertaining stuff. There's a lot of smut, a lot of yaoi and BL and a lot of like Yuri and girls love. I just love queer media. And like, there was just so much. Like I just was, no 1 told me that there was so much. Like queer comics.
Chase: I'm gonna nod like I totally know what you're talking about. Yeah, sounds great.
Courn: Yeah. You're just a couple months away from dipping your toes in. It starts with stuff like Heartstopper.
Chase: Yeah, that was so sweet.
Courn: Yeah, and then next time you're-
Chase: I will say the-
Courn: Flop, flop, flop, flop all over the page. Yeah.
Chase: You did not just-
Courn: I did. That's all the memes.
Chase: I will say reading Lore Olympus, it was like getting a little like steamy and like certain areas. Yeah, okay, I get I get my people into this now It's kind of cool. Yeah, okay.
Courn: Fun fact Lore Olympus was the first like comic that one's like a webtoon I think technically that I started reading I got an advert on Facebook and that's what got me down the hole.
Chase: I love it.
Courn: It happens very incrementally. But then people like zoom into my videos like what do you have over there? What is your comics?
Chase: Thankfully you zoom out enough where I don't think you can see it too easily. If you recognize the spine because you read it. That's different, but you can't just like zoom in.
Courn: It doesn't happen a lot, but every once in a while, someone's just like, is that BJ Alex over there? And I'm like, yeah.
Chase: Eye contact and all, yeah.
Courn: Yeah, what do you want?
Chase: What about audio books? I imagine you don't do it too much.
Courn: I used to have a big audio book phase in high school, but I have to play it really loud to know what they're saying.
Chase: Oh yeah, and then look at it?
Courn: Yeah, I would watch the YouTube videos with captions when they used to allow illegal, you know, just like audio books on YouTube. That's how I used to watch them all the time. And I do it while I was doing my makeup and like read it in the mirror as I was putting on my makeup. I did that a lot at a big phase. I listened to a lot of books instead of reading them. So I never knew how to spell anyone's name. I think I mentioned that before. I didn't know how to spell any of like the Harry Potter characters. Cause I just, I listened to them, but I don't know. Now I feel like my auditory processing has gotten even worse or I just have less effort to do it. So audio books are now like, ehh.
Chase: Yeah. And I feel like when I'm, I need to pay attention to that like audio, but if I'm doing stuff, then it's hard to actually listen to it.
Courn: And you just keep having to go back and stuff. And I'm not a fan of that. I just want pictures. I think that's why I just like-
Chase: I don't enjoy coming up with the like scenes and world building in my head. Personally, I know a lot of people do love that and that's great for you all, but I'm not imaginative. I'm not like that yeah.
Courn: I have no imagination for that stuff so I would just imagine things so generic and I think that's why I get so caught off guard if I read a book and then watch a movie I'm like whoa that is not how I imagined anything.
Chase: Yeah and that's why I was really impressed with how they did Heartstopper. It's like, it felt pretty authentic. Cause obviously you can only do like cartoon to real people so well and like vice versa. But I was like-
Courn: Really good casting and really like, I don't know, got into the background stories that you don't get to, whatever, in the written novels.
Chase: So, yeah. Also just seeing young gay love. I'm like, oh.
Courn: It just gives me so much, just like, I don't know, queer envy and wholesomeness that I don't know. I just feel like all the high school shows coming out when I was in high school really kind of bad and problematic and maybe feel icky. Yeah, and now I'm just like man I'm almost like 30 and I still really enjoy like high school shows in that regard.
Chase: Cause they talk about consent. They talk about like all kinds of safety and stuff and like, be like, it's okay if you don't like that, it's fine. There's like also no pressure and they don't get into like the gory like teenage sex scenes I feel like. Cause I never watched Euphoria but I feel like they got into some dodgy stuff. And they're supposed to be high schoolers, supposed to be minors.
Courn: I know we talked about that in a previous episode. That just always gives me a really big ick.
Chase: But this was pretty cute. And they just implied it, and then they move on. That's it.
Courn: Yeah. I'm excited to see more ace representation too, because it just has been a lot of mainstream media. And it was a very like subtle nod this season with having Isaac talk about it and stuff. I don't know.
Chase: Spoiler.
Courn: That's what comes out like second season.
Chase: Spoiler.
Courn: Is that a spoiler that he's ace?
Chase: No, because I feel like they lead up to it very obviously.
Courn: It's so obvious.
Chase: Yeah, how do you feel about that then? Is that like good representation?
Courn: I don't think it's bad representation. I do dislike that I think making an inherently aro ace character every time there's an ace character is problematic to me.
Chase: It can't be 1 or the other. Yeah. It can't be separate.
Courn: But then Tori's supposed to be example of someone who's just ace and not arrow. So I'm excited if they're going to build that out. Like she has her own novel.
Chase: Also a spoiler.
Courn: Yeah. Sorry.
Chase: It's okay. We'll put a spoiler in. It's okay.
Courn: Spoiler alert.
Chase: No, you're good. You're good. Yeah. I feel like Tori's character also didn't get developed in the books.
Courn: No she has aseparate book called Solitaire.
Chase: Oh I need to read it.
Courn: Which if you know the name of the book is Solitaire.
Chase: Okay yeah.
Courn: You can kind of be like yeah I wonder what that's about.
Chase: Jess and I were speculating what it was, but yeah. Yeah, even her boyfriend character in the last season. What's going on here? It was like very- does he feel a little autistic coded to you?
Courn: Yes.
Chase: Okay. And do we like that? Is that good or bad? I don't know.
Courn: I don't know.
Chase: I'm not, I can't really speak on it, but.
Courn: He definitely feels autistic coded, but.
Chase: Almost in that like-
Courn: I think you could say it about a lot of characters though, too. I think isaac also comes off as like autistic coded in some ways or just really shy and reclusive and like that kind of-
Chase: The overlap is strong, not saying all, not saying all!
Courn: But yeah just making every ace person here early era was always a little bit weird to me because that just makes it seem like, oh, you can't have any type of relationship like that. I mean, some people are like that, so it's good rep for them, but.
Chase: We need some pansexual, asexual, yeah.
Courn: Panromantic.
Chase: Panromantic, Sorry, I immediately was like, damn it, those 2 sexuals back to back.
Courn: Panromantic, because I love pans.
Chase: Okay. Only pans?
Courn: Only pans. Only pans? I forgot.
Chase: OG TikTok days. But I haven't gotten into manga that much but like I mean that's cool I'd like I just like the visualization and like for me the stigma that like adults can read young adult books and like read comics was hard because at first I was like no like adults don't need that like only yeah like fucking nerds read that I was like no no no chase no no no reading!
Courn: And a lot of the comics are like literally mature and like 18 plus, a lot of heavy themes and stuff so I mean they are literally made for adults.
Chase: Yeah so I had once I got over that I was like oh readings so nice again and I do this thing though right obviously buy a lot of books and then never read them I'm like oh I'll read those 1 day and then a year later like oh I forgot that existed.
Courn: I have 11 unfinished books and that's my problem with like reading books if I just like don't feel it after the first 50 pages, I know it probably gets better. But if I'm just not feeling-
Chase: 50 pages is a long time.
Courn: No, that's why I also just like the idea of like comics and stuff. They're just a lot more short form. They're also like split up into like little chapters and stuff so it just feels a little bit easier. Like you can read a whole year's comic in like a night honestly if you wanted to which is powerful. Saddening when you read 3 years of content that quickly. But it's nice that you can. Book is like kind of a commitment. I'll spend like 11 hours reading a book. I ain't got time for that.
Chase: That's a long time.
Courn: Like I have friends who just read in every, like read in every spare moment of their time. And I'm like, wow, I'm just like-
Chase: That's impressive.
Courn: It is.
Chase: But again, I feel like that's just part of their processing they can actually do that because that would be so stressful for me, I could never!
Courn: but I just love the assumption that anyone who like reads is inherently like oh super smart or reading like really like smart things and like most people are just reading trash and that's completely okay that's normal reading doesn't you don't have to read books you don't fucking like.
Chase: You can read whatever you want and it doesn't mean anything. Yeah, except for when maybe you got some problematic authors that you only.
Courn: Yeah, if you want to read like Sarah J. Maas, like. Go off. All these book talk girlies who literally are just like obsessed with all these like white Zionist authors and problematic racist people. But I love the franchise. It doesn't come across in their work. Yes, it does! There's some weird tones and themes and all of these books and also like literally just hearing from someone like there's like a literal author who like killed someone for sport and their books are still popular.
Chase: What?
Courn: Yeah. Oh, I already forgot their name, but I saw a TikTok about them and I had to look it up because I thought it was a joke. They were like, oh yeah, they actually killed someone. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They hunted someone for sport on a weird trip.
Chase: What?
Courn: There's authors who literally are just like, oh yeah, my husband was in the IDF and kills people and just shows pictures of like them killing Palestinians and shit. And you're like, is that an author you want to support? I think people don't realize like how much the content you consume also matters. Like it's just a big red flag to me if your content just isn't diverse and the voices that you're listening to. Especially as someone who's like a self-proclaimed like I read so much I'm a book talk girly I love reading, if all your authors are white, you need to like think about it again, like there's something wrong with you it's the same thing that people only have white friends like I'm like you create your surroundings.
Chase: Yep yep! Louder for the people in the back. I agree wholeheartedly.
Courn: I just have too many friends who are really into books and like I don't know they just don't read diversely or if they do they make it all about it. They're like yeah and this book's by like a person of color.
Chase: It has to be a whole thing.
Courn: Yeah like yeah what do you mean also books from people of color don't have to be about trauma they can be and those can be great books-
Chase: But it can also just be about fun stuff and enjoyable media and entertainment!
Courn: Yeah you're just not trying hard enough if you can't find diverse reading when like literally every like you just look on TikTok diverse reading list.
Chase: Yeah also just thumb through it like are all the colored characters like are all the characters white, like in the drawing it's like it's just like I don't know I really try to like create a lot of diversity in that in the reading realm. It's not hard. I'm not gonna lie. It's not that hard.
Courn: It's really not that hard.
Chase: It's like 1 small extra step and trust me if there was any extra obstacles to reading I wouldn't do it. But like it's not bad. We're also fortunate to have good bookstores around here. Small bookstores too.
Courn: But I mean, there's just so much that you can read some stuff online. There's just really not an excuse. If you're reading at that rate, if you're reading several books a week and they're all from white authors, like you have the resources.
Chase: I feel like the same goes for if you're only following content creators and people online that are like all white. Like come on.
Courn: Yeah and like all your friends all your circle like that's an echo chamber and like you created that like I'm sorry. Like it's absolutely reflection of you.
Chase: And like you can tell. Yeah that's true. That's true. Go off. I love when you go on your rants. It's so good.
Courn: I'm actually feral when I go on rants about that stuff. It's just the book tok thing always gets me because there's just so just I feel like reading has had a really big resurgence on TikTok which has just caused all these shitty I don't know books and trilogies to get really popular.
Chase: Yeah.
Courn: When they have super problematic authors and people are trying to tell you that, you know, authors are separate from their books. They're not. We ditched Harry Potter. We can do it with other books.
Chase: Yeah, I agree. We just came out of a Halloween holiday. You want to talk about some horror movies and other media that you like?
Courn: Horror movies are a big spin of mine I think it definitely relates to-
Chase: Big spin?
Courn: Special interest!
Chase: Oh!
Courn: Shorthand spin, you can spell it uppercase s lowercase B uppercase I lowercase n. I thought I'd use that word in front of you
Chase: No, and it's all just 1 case on the notes. So, I was like, what is spin?
Courn: Just I spin for horror movies. I really do spin for them.
Chase: That's what I was like, what is it? Okay, you're good. So it's a special interest for you.
Courn: Yes.
Chase: Yeah, that's true. It is.
Courn: I love horror movies and that's just my favorite form of content. I love music. I love books. But something about movies has just always got me because I just love the visual aspect.
Chase: For sure.
Courn: Everything comes together. I'm that person that says they like the book more than a movie just because I'm not good at imagining things and like that's not to say every movie is made equal and there's a lot of crappy movies but-
Chase: Yeah if it's not an action movie I have a really hard time really paying attention like no matter how good it is like everywhere all things everywhere all things everywhere once no-
Courn: Everything, everywhere, all at once!
Chase: Thank you, I'm so sorry like great movie but I was like struggling to just see it-
Courn: But there’s so much action!
Chase: For sure it's good but I was just like there's really deep that huh like it's great no shade on it but my attendance span struggled that's totally it's not transformers or like Star Wars or Avengers!
Courn: You want the Avenger, look at the camera, an hour of bad CGI?
Chase: I'm so sorry I'm really I truly apologize.
Courn: That hurts me as a film buff.
Chase: I know. Show me, okay. Why'd we watch, what was it the other day I told you we watched?
Courn: Final Destination.
Chase: That was terrible.
Courn: I did not tell you to watch that.
Chase: I know.
Courn: I went through and ranked them last summer and they kept getting worse.
Chase: Yes, that's what Jess said. I suggested 1 of the Saw movies. And Jess was like, that's a lot of gore. I don't know if you're ready for that.
Courn: That's fair too. That's fair too. Final Destination is kind of gory though too. Just has like unhinged goryness.
Chase: It's unhinged and it's just like, ah!
Courn: Yeah, there's also just like a lot of weird racist, misogynistic stuff in those that's like really weird. That's why that franchise particularly didn't age well.
Chase: And no actors really came from it to like other stuff. I feel like at least.
Courn: There's probably a couple. I don't know everyone's names from that but but.
Chase: I like I do love a movie and especially at home when I can pause get up take a break go get a snack like that's great, movie theaters are almost the worst experience ever for me, which is so wild!
Courn: I agree!
Chase: Like I would love a home theater. That's dope. Big screen, comfy chair, snacks. Like I'm down.
Courn: Yeah. I always like, well, I dislike the idea of a movie theater, but I feel like it was always a necessary evil because if you wanted to see a movie when it was new, like especially before things were on demand and stuff and you couldn't even really rent movies on demand. Like that was really the only way you were gonna see a movie unless you rented it.
Chase: Before it came to DVD.
Courn: Yeah, unless you rented a blockbuster later or eventually it came on cable or something.
Courn: So it just felt like you always had to adapt to go in movie theater. We went to a lot of movie theaters growing up. I hated them. Like I don't know.
Chase: I fell asleep all the time.
Courn: I always had to use the bathroom, but I like did not want to leave the theater. I'd be scared about like, I don't know, strangers and losing my seat. Other people.
Chase: Finding your seat again in the dark!
Courn: Over people, other people overstimulate me in movies so much. Like them eating.
Chase: Reacting.
Courn: I think there should be a no eating.
Chase: The smells of all the foods. Yeah the hot dogs and the popcorn.
Courn: Also people in movie theaters have gotten so feral over the last couple of years.
Chase: Gross. They're really gross.
Courn: Like literally the last few movies we went to this dude was just like putting his hand in a popcorn bucket just reeling it around for like 30 minutes straight in quiet scenes. I'm like what is wrong with you?
Chase: Not the way to stim.
Courn: I don't even care if you laugh loudly like that's fine to me if it's a funny movie. I also laugh loudly and I'm annoying at theaters. But that's why I don't go to them.
Chase: True, I do talk during movies a lot which is why I like to watch them at home.
Courn: Yeah, I love talking. That's like my thing. I love talking during movies. Me and Rian will just like pause or I'll just talk over.
Chase: Yeah and I like being able to talk about it with everyone and be like, what no way this is gonna happen or if I want to look up something again like oh what did this person do like the like impulse to just look it up immediately and then miss the movie so at least I can pause and like yeah make those accommodations but-
Courn: Audio is so bad at movie theaters too!
Chase: Really it's too loud. I think it's too yeah as much as I like the loud surround sound like subwoofer like that's great but it's so loud!
Courn: It's so loud but yet you still can't hear the dialogue. And that's actually what kept me from going to the movie theater for years. If you are a person who has a hard time with auditory processing and doesn't know what they're saying, you absolutely can't ask the movie theater for a closed captioning device.
Chase: I was just gonna ask you. How does that work? Do they-
Courn: Just ask the front person.
Chase: And they just start it and it plays it?
Courn: Yeah, it's just like a little thing. Once it's in the movie theater, it syncs up to the audio and will start during previews. It's super easy. Nice. Usually they just go on the cup holder and it's on a little box so no 1 else can see it. Yeah, they have tons of them so don't feel like you're taking it away from someone because they never have it checked out.
Chase: Yeah, because I know Jess struggles like not having subtitles.
Courn: Yeah, it's like literally made my movie going experience so much better. Now we go during matinees so nobody's there. I don't hear people eating. I can mask safely without people coughing next to me. Got my little closed captioning device. It's still super expensive and I hate the movie theater. But certain movies just take so long to go on streaming. I hate it.
Chase: Correct. You and your partner messing around in those theaters?
Courn: Ew, no!
Chase: I'm just kidding. I had to ask. I'm just kidding.
Courn: Ever since I found out that most of them have cameras in the movie theaters-
Chase: Yes, I've heard that. I've heard that.
Courn: I hate movie theater food. I don't buy that stuff. We did not grow up buying movie theater.
Chase: No, it's so expensive!
Courn: That's not something an Asian dad is gonna buy you.
Chase: We went to a movie for my really good friend's birthday. Not yours. Just kidding.
Courn: Who is, who are they?
Chase: Who are the other friends? We bought Twisted Teas, cause those are available at movie theaters now. Which is kind of exciting.
Courn: Unhinged.
Chase: $14 a can.
Courn: I believe it.
Chase: The whole pack of like 12 pack is like less than 15 bucks.
Courn: Correct. That's why you shouldn't buy movie theater food.
Chase: I know. I was like, buddy, that is ridiculous.
Courn: Like literally everything is overpriced. The same candy is like 7 dollars. The water thing always gets me. I found out that most movie theaters now will let you bring water if it's like sealed. But a lot of them for a while didn't and they'd get mad at you. They get mad about water bottles.
Chase: I remember bringing my own food in theaters. That was so good.
Courn: I used to bring so much candy.
Chase: The suddenly big jacket and bag, just like, don't mind me.
Courn: My hottest grab that I ever brought in the theater is I put a whole liter in my pants and a fully popped popcorn bag, like in my jacket. And I think I was like 12. They had to have, like, it had to have looked so bad. Like, I have no idea how it looked because I was like 12. But it had to have been so fucking obvious that there's just like a leader in my pants.
Chase: Or putting like hot food in and it just smells when you open it.
Courn: But they didn't get paid enough.
Chase: It was a small movie theater.
Chase: I was gonna say, what are the people gonna do? You can't take that in here. No, I'm gonna take it in and you just walk past. They're not gonna do anything. They're just high school kids. Yeah. Just scanning tickets.
Courn: I get that's how they make their money but I don't like it.
Chase: But like dude no I would buy concessions if they were affordable, or if they were better quality, also like artisan stuff!
Courn: Yes the candy is always like really old-
Chase: It’s the bag within the box, trash!
Courn: I hate those but the food is always so bad like we like we'll go the fancy theaters the ones that have like you know like pretzels and whatever like-
Chase: You have to order like food, yeah.
Courn: And like they're always just like so mid but it's like 12 bucks but that used to get us-
Chase: Like buffalo wild wing quality but you're paying like way higher!
Courn: Oh it's not even, oh it's not even it's like literally frozen aisle quality and like you weren't trying that hard to warm it up.
Chase: Or like in this hillside little freezer burnt!
Courn: Yeah I just think movie theaters are kind of horrid, I think they're the worst.
Chase: I think they're gross I don't like the public seating like that.
Courn: They don't clean them.
Chase: Like I don't sit on public transit for that reason.
Courn: Correct.
Chase: I just can't. No outside clothes ever.
Courn: Correct. That 1 especially I know they don't clean those seats and the amount of like tik-tok people that I've seen that work in movie theaters that are just like, yeah, those seats are so gross. People piss their pants all the time at movie theaters. They were like, it happens way more than you think.
Chase: Don't tell me that.
Courn: They're like literally all the time.
Chase: Because they don't want to get up and miss the movie.
Courn: Yeah. Or just like children or some people do it as like a kink. Yeah, they like to urinate in public places.
Chase: Please don't urinate on a public seat that I have to sit in. Yeah, as a kink. I'm not trying to shame, but I don't want to sit in your pee.
Courn: I mean, there's reasons for incontinence and other things.
Chase: That's different. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Courn: But you know, I'd hope you have something in place.
Chase: Can you put something down? This is kind of real weird. This is not how I wanted it to but long story short I don't necessarily want to sit in someone's purposeful urine.
Courn: No, I just want to, this is why we just watch movies at home.
Chase: Truly. Like I said, I would love a home theater at home and just like a little, it doesn't need to be huge, but just like a little big screen, a couple of chairs. I mean, we could do in this room technically.
Courn: Yeah, we could.
Chase: Don't you craft a lot while you watch movies too?
Courn: I do!
Chase: How do you pay attention and watch?
Courn: I don't! No, I do but I don't, I usually like to do it with movies I've seen before. Cause I'm like for reference, I watch probably like 2 or 3 movies a day. I watch a lot.
Chase: Like in the background? While you work?
Courn: Yeah. Okay, that's different. I'll switch back with music and movies, but I like to watch, I just don't like having blank noise, but yeah. I just have a hard time focusing on movies unless it's something I'm really excited about. So if it's like a B-grade movie, like whenever it's like a Netflix original type movie, but I just want to watch it so it's checked off. I usually like to do small crafts, like hand crafts. Like I'll do wool felting. I don't have the hands anymore for crochet. It's too hard on me.
Chase: Wool felting, I don't even know what that is.
Courn: It's just like stabbing. With a little needle.
Chase: Oh, okay.
Courn: But you can have a lot more blunt grip.
Courn: Like a big grip? It's not as finite.
Courn: Yeah, I can't really do the fine crafts anymore.
Chase: Okay. But. That's cool.
Courn: That's what I do a lot. I'll go on my iPad a lot and do work and stuff. It's just like, it's hard to focus.
Chase: That's the thing. The multitask and like that prolonged amount of attention stuff. So finding things to do in between.
Courn: Especially if you're, I think if you're with someone it's easier for me. And like, I feel like I can, you know, focus if someone else is there, but if like the other person isn't in it or I'm by myself.
Chase: You can focus on them. Ow!
Courn: Oh, okay. Chase said Netflix and chill. No, I'm trying to watch the movie. If you do that while I'm trying to watch a movie that I really want to watch, I will slap you.
Chase: You're like, no, I'm trying to pay attention. Get your hands away.
Courn: Yeah. Also I watch a lot of horror movies and that's a weird movie to be doing things to. Just in the back, ahhh! Someone's head getting cut off. That's not the mood. That's not the mood.
Chase: It could be the mood for some people.
Courn: I guess. I'm not trying to yuck your yum!
Chase: Coming around to a lot of kinks in this episode a lot of kink talk.
Courn: Yeah don't want to kink shame but Saw movies don't get me off. So, turns out nothing does. Ooh, ace Pride.
Chase: Okay, well on that note!
Courn: Badda bing.
Chase: Bye!
Courn: Bye!
Chase: Hey folks, a quick disclaimer here. Courn and I speak directly from our own experiences, and while we try our best to amplify marginalized voices and present accurate information, the thoughts expressed here are definitely not a reflection of all neurodivergent, AAPI, or queer folks. So, if you have any suggestions, comments, or thoughts, feel free to email us at hello@neurotakespod.com. Thanks!