TRAPPO's Mail Bag #15!
Welcome to the latest installment of TRAPPO's Mail Bag, the show that talks about you on purpose! In this double-sized fifteenth episode spectacular, we deal with a wide range of topics, including good and bad comic book shop experiences, we pimp YouTuber CinemaTyler's brilliant video essays, the superiority of Perfect Dark 64 to the legendary GoldenEye 64, Rebecca Black's wonderful growth as a musical artist, delicious spicy mustard, the music of Dawn Richard, the theoretical music of a "band" called Mothica, werewolves in cinema, and a bunch of other stuff that I won't spoil here. It's a lot to unpack, and that's not even getting into the heartfelt thread of comments that close the episode, sparking a very productive conversation that might just change the way TRAPPO operates moving forward. Fair warning: there is frank discussion of very real physical assault in this thread, as well as some other potentially triggering language, so if you don't want to deal with some heavy themes, you might want to stop listening around 23 minutes into the episode. The episode is below, or you can listen on Apple, Google, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify and Anchor, so choose your own adventure and let's jump right into this big fucking mess of comments...
Join the conversation! Leave a comment below and tell us what you think of the latest episode. While you're at it, suggest some topics for future episodes. Have you heard any good music recently? Seen any good movies? Tell us all about it below. You could also send us a self-indulgent email if you're feeling a bit more verbose. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram and Twitter (until Elon Musk burns it all to the ground) for the complete TRAPPO experience.
One quick final note: this episode was recorded before we had learned that one of our regulars had begun their own personal transition and as such we inadvertently dead-name them several times during the recording. We sincerely apologize to the individual affected and promise it will never happen again. Thank you so much for being a friend to TRAPPO, and we want this to be a safe space for you and all of our dear, dear listeners.
Thanks for listening!
I'd almost forgotten about that thread. I'm wondering if maybe I was too grandiose, too broad in my initial reply. Why was I so passionate about some words on a blog? Maybe I was getting dizzy from standing on that super-tall soapbox. But fuck it. I stand by every word I say.
ReplyDeleteI'm a deeply weird person. I have spiritual experiences while tripping on LSD and listening to bizarre music. I'm a gender-fluid part-time drag queen who twerked to Shenseea's "Dolly" dressed like Carrie at the prom, drenched in fake blood on stage at my 35th birthday party. I've got a circle of friends who mean more to me than almost every member of my "real" family put together, and we're there for each other no matter the circumstances. And they're all fucking weird people, too. I'm a woke snowflake, a harmless individual who's just trying to eke out a little happiness when and where I can in this miserable world.
I shared some serious stuff from my past because I don't feel like hiding who I am anymore. I've dealt with some fucking trauma. We all have. I'm not gonna let it define me. I'm also not gonna let some anonymous asshole try to tell me what does and doesn't matter. You don't get to tell me what's important, you brainwashed scumbag. I love who I am. It's taken me a long time to be able to say that, but there it is. I love being myself, and I wouldn't want to be anybody else. I also love TRAPPO. You guys are great, and I greatly appreciate that you continue to indulge this weirdness on your blog. Keep doing what you're doing, and I'll keep listening.
KEEP TRAPPO WEIRD AS FUCK
Yeah, that got really heavy in the last half. Perfect Dark is better than Goldeneye, though. That’s just a fact.
ReplyDeleteI used to frequent comic book stores in my youth. I'd kinda wander off into a corner and flip through issues of Heavy Metal magazine and look for boobs because I couldn't help myself. I felt so ashamed and I made sure nobody saw me when I scanned for illustrated nudity. I was like 11 years old and the magazines were right there. I was compelled to do this by my tween libido. It's forbidden fruit, man. Any time somebody got close I'd just drop that magazine down on the rack and pick up whatever comic book was closest and act like I was enthralled in whatever I was "reading". I don't think anybody ever caught on, but it didn't really matter, I guess.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the owner had a camera trained on me the entire time and I never knew, so he knew I was a secret pervert all that time and maybe even he told my mother and that's why she lost all respect for me when I was a young boy growing up on the mean streets of Aurora, Illinois. I think she really just always wanted a girl and instead she popped out two sons and since I was the youngest she resented me more than my older brother because she thought somehow it was my fault that I wasn't born a girl. Like I had been a boy only to spite my mother. Or maybe all that's just in my head and hates me because I was just an asshole kid. But she threw away all my comic books when I started high school because I was "too old for funny books", so she can go fuck herself. And she has to since my dad divorced my mother when I was 17 and nobody else wants to date this heinous woman.
I miss all my old Lady Death comics. They were all bagged and boarded and they looked so handsome in that longbox I decorated with a bunch of skulls with my black magic markers. She didn't throw away my issues of Penthouse. She knew where they were. She knew. But she left them safely tucked under my mattress. Maybe she was proud of me for hoarding pornography because it wasn't a fucking comic book. I wish she'd thrown those away instead. I can find porn on my phone right now, and I just might as soon as I'm done typing this. But those comic books aren't so easily replaced. Those back issues of Vengeance Of Vampirella cost several dollars apiece on Ebay and I'm not fucking made of money, mom!
I live in a studio apartment and I'm barely hanging on because this world is a smoldering nightmare and I'm slowly being priced out of the lower, lower middle class despite the fact that I work 60 hours a week, and I miss my bad girl comics, damn you. I had the Vampirella Julie Strain special signed by Julie Strain because she had a signing at the store I shopped at when the issue came out, and it was the coolest fucking thing I ever owned. But my mother threw that away, too. Julie Strain's dead now, mom. She's not signing comics anymore. She's not signing anything anymore. This sucks. Whatever. I guess I'll just take this bitterness to my fucking grave. Nobody better ask me to deliver the eulogy when my mother kicks the bucket, because I might just go off like a frothing lunatic behind that podium. It'll be a train wreck.
I enjoy the show, traps. It's good stuff. I agree with all the sentiment in the back half of the episode. I'm a snowflake. I feel like our world's coming apart at the seams, and I need a safe harbor just to keep semi-sane. We all do. Fuck bigots.
Black Math Horseman's got a new EP out. It's called Black Math Horseman. It's fucking lovely music that gets me all hot and bothered, like Penthouse used to back in the day. They released an album called Wyllt back in 2009, toured a little, then fucking broke up because they didn't know what else to do. Sera Timms went on to form Ides Of Gemini, which is also badass music, but Black Math Horseman is where it's at, my friends. And now they're back. And better than ever, if I do say so myself. Ride the Black Math Horseman all the way to Fuck Town, USA.
And RIP Julie Strain. I loved you in Return To Savage Beach.
I met Julie Strain at a signing in LA when Heavy Metal 2000 came out on DVD. She was so stoked to be pimping that movie, so proud of being immortalized in animation. The movie itself wasn't great, and it's even worse when you see the original concept art by the legendary Simon Bisley, but there's no way his art style could be translated to animation. There just isn't enough time or money. I think it's still an entertaining flick despite its flaws, and Julie Strain was one of the coolest people I've ever met. She was taking photos with fans and chatting and having a good time for hours. Some of us just stuck around to listen to her talk while she was signing stuff for people. She was just a natural entertainer. I bought a copy of her autobiography, "Six Foot One And Worth The Climb" and had her sign it for me. I still have that book, and I'm never getting rid of it. So she never starred in any big blockbusters. She was queen of the B movie and proud of it. Her death really upset me. She was such a cool lady.
DeleteEverybody wants to have a good time. So can we all just have a good time? This is supposed to be entertaining. I know you had to address the matter at hand on your show, and that's all fine. But that was a lot to take in. Let's just enjoy stuff now. Let's watch some cool movies and listen to some neat music and not have to worry abotu the horrible world for a while. Taylor Swift's got a new album out. Why don't we talk about that?
ReplyDeleteTo hell with Taylor Swift, let’s talk about King Woman.
DeleteYou know… I really like The Eurythmics. They’re a swell duo. Effortless cool from these two, just the best. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the TRAPS discuss The Eurythmics, and that’s a problem. You should think about changing that, maybe. I don’t know much, but I do know that The Eurythmics are awesome, and that awesomeness should be acknowledged. On TRAPPO. Soon.
ReplyDeleteThis mail bag was all over the map. But that's not a bad thing. Honestly this stuff needs to be said. There are so many radical voices on the right, not just in the US but everywhere, that are essentially calling for diverse voices to be silenced, and that is genuinely scary. JK Rowling, one of the richest people in the world who could have coasted on her Harry Potter fame and just kept out of this spotlight, has transformed her social media into a platform to spread transphobic slurs and she has a big audience that is buying everything she's selling. I don't know what's going on anymore. It feels like we're taking some big steps forward in a lot of ways, but there are too many influential people who keep forcing us to accept bigotry and intolerance, that we somehow have to remain tolerant of their intolerance, like that's actually supposed to make sense. Let the hatemongers keep spewing bile on the radio and on television. They'll eventually just go away, right? No, they won't. Not when there are millions of people tuning in and believing every horrifying word they say.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the solution? How about a fucking safe space? People need a safe harbor from the storm, and why can't TRAPPO be that, at least for a little while? That's cool. I appreciate it.
Keep TRAPPO weird.
And also talk about The Eurythmics, because CJ's right and their awesomeness should be acknowledged. SOON.
I always like the Mail Bags, but this one was maybe the best one yet. Really entertaining and thought provoking. Good stuff, and I think anybody who considers themselves a "dear listener" would agree with the underlying sentiment. We like each other, and we like being weird, so fuck anyone who disagrees.
ReplyDeleteSince we're on the subject of weird, have you fine TRAPS heard of EMIT? They're a... well, I was going to say "band", but that's not really what EMIT is now that I think about it. They're more like a wave of troubled emotion than a band, per se. I read a review that dubbed their music "blackened delirium" once, and that's the best way I can describe it. Semi-ambient dread, like walking through a graveyard after midnight. My favorite collection of theirs is called "Spectre Music Of An Antiquary", and it's a pure dark mood. There's a lot of craft and passion behind this music, and it's all designed to make you feel like somebody's right behind you, reaching out in the dark, and if the time is right and you think you're actually alone, you might just feel ghostly fingers brush your shoulder. So give it a chance. What's the worst that could happen? You hate it and call me a putz. Or maybe the music really is haunted and you're murdered by a poltergeist. Either way, I'm good.
Keep TRAPPO haunted. By awesomely spooky sounds.
I just want to listen to TRAPPO each week and enjoy myself. I'm not trying to rock the boat. I don't want to generate controversy. I have to deal with enough bullshit in an average day as it is without that following me around while I'm just trying to relax for a while. I like TRAPPO, and I like the little community of people I've found because of TRAPPO. I talk to some of them almost every day, and I consider them real friends. I wouldn't have those friendships without this podcast. We're not an echo chamber. We don't all think the same. But we have enough in common that we can come together to agree on a few fundamental truths. We shouldn't have to tolerate the presence of shitty, close-minded people in this community.
ReplyDeleteKick the fuckers out!