#maximum verbosity

[otherpeoplescreativity]

Fair warning:

I'm fighting insomnia by flipping through the state polls.

Mostly I pick "something else" because, of course, Nerd.

If you don't want to see a bunch of tag essay tripe, you probably want to filter the tag "I live inside usa" for a few days.

[atlantafringe]

The Buzz Intro Interview - Phillip Andrew Bennett Low

Respondent: Phillip Andrew Bennett Low Name of Company: Maximum Verbosity Name of Show: Indefinite Articles: A Libertarian Rage

Q: What’s your process for creating something like this? A: Is whiskey a process?

1. Why should anybody see your show?

I give up. Why should anybody see my show? If I have anything unique to offer, it’s an outsider’s perspective – I belong to that political fringe that dislikes crossing the ethical lines that our party process is continually redrawing. Although I’m sure there’s many who would say that “dislikes crossing ethical lines” is synonymous with “childishly refuses to compromise”, and, hell, they may be right. Though as I’m writing this, I’m looking at the likelihood of a Trump-Clinton race, and a lot of voters are going to have to ask themselves some hard questions about where their lines are anymore.

2. Why Atlanta?

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there." Well, Atlanta is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. Thank you.

3. What inspired you to create this?

The word “inspiration” comes from the Latin root spirare, “to breathe” – it’s the root that we get respiration and expiration from. We also get the term spirit, which can refer to both the immortal soul – the seat of highest consciousness – or to alcoholic beverage. What I’m saying is that I was inspired by whiskey.

4. What’s your process for creating and rehearsing something like this?

Is whiskey a process?

5. What have you learned from working on your show so far?

I think I may actually be dumber now than I was when I started.

6. Tyler Perry, Jane Fonda, Killer Mike and NeNe Leakes roll up at your show. There is one ticket left. Who gets it?

Bidding war. FREE MARKET, BITCHES

OK, we were honestly surprised by that answer, so we’re gonna go ahead and post the Bernie/Killer Mike pic we already downloaded.

7. Atlanta’s foodie scene is really on point these days. What does your show taste like? (Bonus points if you can name-check an ATL restaurant.)

Well, I’m half-Chinese, half-Australian, so if this show were a dish that I was preparing, it would probably be fried rice with kangaroo meat that an incompetent half-Chinese chef ejaculated onto. In any case, you’ll be hungry again in an hour.

8. Fringes are the place to really push the boundaries so we gotta ask: would you want your parents in the front row or would you tell them, “Maybe skip this one, guys...”?

Are those my only choices? They’ve seen it. They knew better than to sit in the front row. I am the Gallagher of spewing obscenities at my audience. I meant that as a metaphor, though I’ve been told (to my everlasting mortification) that I actually have spit on people in the front.

“A two party system without serious campaign finance reform is inherently fucking corruptible!” (watermelon)

9. Will your show save mankind?

There is a very real possibility that my show may doom mankind.

10. Oh boy! A mysterious benefactor gave you a million dollars after your first show! What do you do?

I express deep concern, asking if they’ve been feeling all right, if they need someone to talk to, if their loved ones have noticed any sudden changes in their behavior. I walk them to a nearby hospital, sit beside them in the emergency room, and, with Christ-like patience, make certain that they receive they care they so obviously need.

Just kidding. COKE AND WHORES, YO

11. Describe your show in three words.

Verbal, vulgar, vicious.

For more information, please visit Maximum Verbosity on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

[jackiefour]

The old Infocom text-based computer games like Zork The Great Underground Empire would only give you the full description of a room the first time you entered it unless you typed in the command "maximum verbosity." Then you would get the full description each time you entered that room. This was helpful if, like me, you couldn't remember all the possible exits and objects in every room in the game. Apparently, I typed that command into my life somewhere when I was a kid and I can't remember the command to deactivate it. Or in other words, I talk a lot, pretty much all the time.

[goteamvikings]

Go Team Vikings is Go For Launch!

Tracy: So, um, hi! This is the chat conversation I was thinking we'd transcribe and edit for the purposes of "officially" kicking off our Go Team Vikings "fuck depression right in the stupid face it does not have" Tumblr. [9:03 PM GMT Thursday]

Allison: Woohoo! Hello Tumblrnets!

I can start with my position on the subject — depression is a fucker and if it had an ass I would kick it.

Tracy: Hear, hear. Also, monkeys are funny.

Allison: I second that motion.

Tracy: And I am happy to report that my weird cold-like symptoms have vanished to the point where I can totally put milk in the tea I am about to brew in the awesome monkey infuser you gave me!

Allison: Hooray!!!

I was going to make some of the Earl Grey Blue with my monkey infuser, but at the last second I dodged left and went for the jasmine green.

Tracy: I think I need some new Earl Grey. The stuff I've got seems to be getting more bergamot-ty every time I open the tin, and that is some freaky stuff considering how I keep trying to dilute it with plain old Assam or whatever.

Allison: Are you sure you aren't diluting it with bergamont peel?

Tracy: Pretty darn, but I'm sure stranger things have happened.

Allison: If you ever make it to Corvallis, I need to take you to the tea store here. They have like five kinds of Earl Grey.

Including Super Mega Bergamont and also Vanilla.

Tracy: That is sexy!

I am still thinking I will take refuge with you in Corvallis while Peter is at a wedding in Eugene this July.

Clearly, there will be tea then.

Much tea.

Allison: That would rock! We will be drunk on tea the whole time!

Tracy: Woooooooo!

Allison: And if you find yourself missing the trappings of a wedding, we can try to put Boo in a white dress.

Eddy is already in the tux.

Tracy: That would be almost as painful as going to a wedding, yes!

Allison: Pretty much.

Tracy: Eddie is a snappy dresser, that guy.

Good cats.

Allison: True that, he always dresses for dinner.

Good cats!

Tracy: And dinner should be all the time, since he is always dressed for the occasion! I see how this works. Very good cats.

Allison: That's cat logic, and no power on earth can defeat it.

Tracy: So true....

Allison: Third time is a charm: writing thoughts is very hard, for some reason.

They usually make more sense inside my head.

Which is not a place known for its sense, so we are starting from a pretty low baseline here.

Tracy: Speaking of which, I just totally got the ebook version of Sense and Sensibility on my thing-that-I-can't-put-down-to-save-my-life phone.

Apparently "sense" is the rational, common kind, and "sensibility" is ALL THE FEEEEEEELINGS?

Allison: Awesome! I think that was the first thing I read when I discovered the open source project back in the day.

Tracy: Sweeeeet....

Allison: Yup. Sense is the thinking and sensibility is the intuition....

I was revisiting transcendentalism this week, and man has that become an annoying philosophy since I was fifteen.

There's a lot more "what I feel is more true than all your stupid facts, man" than I remember.

Tracy: Wow, I believe. And I remember Emerson being a wanker even when I was reading him for the first time in 11th grade or whatever.

Allison: Yeah, I can't help but recast Thoreau as the trust-fund libertarian of his time. It takes a lot of the romance out.

Tracy: Amen. I was typing "Thoreau's plenty ridiculously self-righteous too" when you sent that last.

Now I want somebody to take SNL's "Jah Trent" video and make "Jah Thoreau" with it.

Allison: I don't know this video... googling...

Tracy: Ras Trent [Editor's note: Sadly, Tumblr does not allow for video embedding like Gmail chat does. Readers will have to Google Ras Trent for themselves if so inclined.]

Allison: P.S. Has anyone ever actually emailed Hulu's support email because they didn't see the intro commercials?

Tracy: Perhaps in thanks?

"Keep on screwing that up, guys, it's AWESOME!"

Allison: But then they would be on to us.

Tracy: True. Can't blow that cover.

Speaking of having things covered, if you've got a post lined up for this Caturday, that means I'm on deck for tomorrow?

Allison: Just finished, I agree there needs to be a music video made about college sophomore transcendentalists.

"Post" may be too strong a word, but I do have this photo.

Tracy: That's the joy of Tumblr! It is short attention span theater blogging at its finest!

All I ever post to the TracyFood feed is straight from Instagram.

Picture, caption, boom! Done.

Allison: Hmm, can't seem to put photos in the chat...

Yup, that's about my level.

Tracy: See? It is awesome.

Especially since Peter tells me there's a new Baldur's Gate game coming out and you're about to be extra-bonus-distracted away from bloggination?

Allison: It's just a rumor at this point, so I'll probably be around for a while yet.

Tracy: Oh — good?

I don't even know, man.

Allison: Me neither. It can be really hard to tell if and when games are good or bad.

For the ol' sanity, I mean.

Tracy: Heard that. Another reason my stupid thing-I-can't-put-down-to-save-my-life phone is a mixed blessing.

Allison: I think I'm going to have a draw a "continuum of coping mechanisms" cartoon some time.

With heroin on one end, and transcendent works of art of the other.

Tracy: You can fit them on a continuum? Mine is 3-space at least. #nerrrrrrrrrd.

Allison: I was just seeing the "how likely they are to kill you" axis. But we can throw in a couple more as necessary....

Tracy: I was thinking axes like "likeliness to harm others" and "relative fun and easiness" or maybe "level of sanity required to achieve" or something like that.

Allison: Dude, there are so many things that would be really helpful if only I had enough sanity to do them. Fuck all those things. I hate them so much.

Tracy: Seriously.

Allison: Like regular exercise! And healthy food! And a good night's sleep!

Tracy: I know, right? I read a really good thing once about how the only thing that really gets results against the crazy is... getting results against the crazy. AUGH.

Allison: YES! I know full well these things are correlated with feeling better, that doesn't mean I can do them right now!

Tracy: Along those same lines, have you read Kate Bornstein's book about alternatives to suicide? She rates things according to difficulty and dangerousness and a few other scales as well. It was cute.

Allison: No, I haven't!

Tracy: I read or heard an interview with her that made me hunt down the book.

Yay for the library!

Allison: Beginning library hunt now...

Tracy: It's called "Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws"

I just gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Allison: BOOM! I now have a hold request, and I love the future.

Tracy: Loving the future is super-important. In fact, maybe that should be a regular feature on teh feed? Stuff we are looking forward to?

Future Fridays, maybe?

Allison: Ooh, I like Future Fridays.

Tracy: I could totally write a thing about that for tomorrow: awesome concert coming up on Monday.

Allison: That also goes well after Thankful Thursdays....

Tracy: True. From looking back to looking forward....

Ok, totally writing about that for tomorrow. Sweet.

Allison: I need to go to more shows. I always talk myself out of going, and I almost always enjoy going.

Tracy: Maaaaan, fuck the endless capacity for talking myself out of things!

Sour fucking grapes are BULLSHIT.

Only I like preemptively give myself sour grapes or something. That is from hell.

Allison: AGREED

Also, being totally wiped out for days afterward is worth it, even though it seems like laundry is More Important at the time.

Tracy: Amen. BOO HISS on preemptively second-guessing myself even before I've done a damn thing.

Allison: BOOOO! HISSSSSSS!

I am helping.

Tracy: You are like a magical sitar that only speaks the truth!

Allison: Oh, no.

I am a magical helpful sitar that only speaks the truth.

How can you miss the helping? It's all over the frickin' place. And we'll never get it out of the rug.

Tracy: Ok, I did actually laugh out loud at that.

LLOL (literal LOL).

Allison: Oh shit, now you made me LLOL.

LLOL!

Tracy: Win!

Allison: Hmmm, I may need more tea. I will experiment with carrying the laptop around as if it were mobile.

Tracy: I have gone into standing-desk mode in the kitchen in order to brew a second cup...

Allison: Hooray for tea!

Tracy: Hooray for tea indeed. So! We have a semblance of a blog schedule, sort of! At least until Monday next! Woo!

Allison: Woooooooo!

So, do I get to foist editing duties off on to you, at least for this first chat?

Tracy: Tomorrow is looking forward to a concert, Caturday is set, then I'll do a Musical Monday based on the concert... gotta milk that for all it's worth (also maybe a note about the restaurant where we have pre-concert reservations....) Tuesday is yours.

You totally get to foist chat-editing duties on me. This mutha is loooooong!

Allison: Tea is for Tuesdays, hmmmm, I will plot and scheme...

Tracy: Do you want me to ping you with a nigh-finished draft, or should I just post it and let you edit out anything else you don't want?

Allison: No, wait! It goes Tracy-Allison-Tracy-Allison! I get Monday!

Tracy: Not if you do a Caturday post!

Allison: Oh, I see what you did there. Like Caturday is a day.

That's why they put "day" in it.

Tracy: LLOL

Allison: You should go ahead and post, and I'll edit out anything too incriminating.

Tracy: Rock on.

That's a good note to end on, actually. The mysterious, what did we leave out, muah hah ha!

Mine is an evil laugh! Only not really.

Also is it spelled mwah ha hah? Something like that.

Allison: Oh come on, everyone knows we left out the hookers and blow. They know us.

Tracy: Maybe muah is for laughing and mwah is for smooching.

I am overthinking onomatopoeia. That is how I roll now, apparently.

Allison: Hmm, I think mwah does both.

Tracy: It is a giggly smoochy noise! That is good.

Allison: It is both giggly and smoochy and evil and sinister.

I'm certain "both" is the word I'm looking for there.

Tracy: It is large! It contains multitudes! (Just to circle back to wankish transcendentalism again, oh yes I went there.)

Allison: LLOL

Tracy: LLOL!

Allison: I've got your multitudes right here!

Tracy: New favorite stupid acronym!

Allison: Yup, I'm going to have to use that one a lot....

Tracy: Teehee. Maturity level: still dropping. Yaaaaay!

Allison: Yaaaaay!

We know it's about right when we hit about five years old.

Tracy: Now that you mention it, I do have an NYPL copy of TMBG's Here Come the 1-2-3's on hand....

There is a DVD!

Maybe I will watch it while I edit.

Allison: Thanks for doing a chat with me, Tracy! And tumblring with me!

I think it will help.

Also, the hockey monkey song.

Tracy: You're super-welcome, Allison! It is something I have been looking forward to all week, so it is helpful already in that regard!

Hockey Monkey FTW!

Allison: The monkey's got a hockey stick!!!!!

Tracy: Havin' a good time, yeeeeeeaaaaaah.

Happy Thank You Thursday!

Allison: I should probably go for my constitutional now.

Happy Thank You Thursday!

Tracy: Have an excellent constitutional!

Allison: I'll try! Have a good edit!

Tracy: I will endeavor to have this posted for you to check out when you get back!

Wooooooooo!

Allison: Wooooooooooo!!!

Go Team! Break!

Tracy: Annnnnnd SCENE. [10:06 PM GMT Thursday]