Episode 31: "The Gays And Their Hats” (w/ Ayesha Harris!)

*Michael is ALSO out this week on account of the plague, but Nay and Brennan are joined by barber and cafe owner Ayesha Harris who is more than enough to round out the conversation, which is on the Stephen King flick 1408!   Nay shares stories on love and loss while Brennan obsesses over the Carpenters, and they take advantage of their alone time to debut the pilot of Nay’s Yeas or Nays!   Plus, in Tea Time we sip on CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and THE LA LLORONA CURSE.[1]* [2]*[3]*

## **Trivia**

First(?) episode without Michael

**Nay:** Hey folks, Michael is not with us tonight

**Brennan:** Yeah. We poisoned all the coconut LaCroixs because we knew only *he* would drink them and we wanted to get rid of him

**Nay:** Yeah, Michael told us to tell you that he's literally shitting himself right now, so that's fun. Thanks, Michael

**Brennan:** Live and in-person

**Nay:** (amused) Live and in-person

Topics brought up during the episode: music from *The Exorcist* (1973) used in the trailer for *1408*, Shelly Shell (comedian), the L Project, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch\_Mystique *The Butch Mystique*
,] Ayesha on Instagram: stokelysla

## **Tea Time**

**Nay:** The very end of *Crazy Ex-girlfriend*

**Ayesha:** *The Twilight Zone* (2019) reboot

**Brennan:** *The La Llorona Curse* (aka *Her Cry: The La Llorona Investigation*)

## **Shady Summaries**

**Brennan:** I wanna preface this by saying to our wonderful guest that this is a *very* Shady Summary, but I *did* enjoy the movie, so…

**Ayesha:** Yeah!

**Brennan:** Too much John Cusack stars opposite not enough Samuel L. Jackson in nobody's favorite Stephen King movie about a haunted hotel

**Ayesha:** (laughs) That's perfect! Wait, this is a Stephen King film?

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm!

**Brennan:** It's based on one of his short stories

**Ayesha:** Oh, get out!

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Any of his short stories, you put the word "evil" and insert a noun, it's like Mad Libs. "Evil" a room, "Evil" washing machine

**(Ayesha and Nay ask Brennan to read his Shady Summary again. He does.)**

**Ayesha:** (laughs) You got *served*

**Nay:** We *do* have a Shady Summary from Michael

**Brennan:** We *do*, yeah! Michael sent in, even though he's being generous at both ends right now somewhere across the city

**Nay:** Yeah. *All* the ends, honestly

**Brennan:** But he was generous with his mouth, specifically for this Shady Summary

**Nay:** When isn't he

**Michael:** *1408* made me sick. It literally made me sick. That's why I'm not here today, everybody. See you next week!

**(Nay and Ayesha laugh)**

**Nay:** Ohhh, poor Michael!

**Ayesha:** I picked the right film. Specifically. This is perfect

**Nay:** Poor Michael, with the fever. I was like, "Boy, what do you mean you got a fever and you're throwing up? Of course you're not coming!"

**Brennan:** Yeah! Also, please don't come!

**Nay:** Yeah don't trip. It's no thing, Michael. I love you so much, but that is miserable. Please go take care of yourself. I don't want it

**Brennan:** Also-- number one…

**Nay:** Take yo' ass home (laughs)

**Brennan:** I mean, this is a panel show, because we can't rely on just one or two people because we have a lot of people who have jobs and schedules and human bodies with their own frailties, so--

**Nay:** Yeah

**Ayesha:** Right

**Brennnan:** That's what it's built for

**Nay:** So I had two (Shady Summaries). I think I'm gonna save one for later when I feel it can come up organically

**Brennan:** Oooh!

**Nay:** But I was just gonna say (exhales, chuckles) just basically a movie about a white man who threatens to sue a hotel to get into their death room

**Brennan:** That's very accurate!

**Nay:** Like their surefire, "You will die in here." He's like, "You know what? If you don't let me in, Imma sue you."

**Brennan:** It's like, "Can I speak to the manager?"

**Nay:** (laughing) (as a white person) "Can I speak to the manager?!" (normal voice) Exactly. Yeah.

**Ayesha:** I don't have a really good quippy one like you guys do.

**Nay:** I mean, mine wasn't...

**Brennan:** It was good!

**Ayesha:** It just made me, "Twenty-four hour concierge gone wrong, like completely off the rails."

## **Nay's Yeas or Nays**

**Brennan:** I did have a little experiment that I wanted to see--

**Nay:** Sure!

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** Nay, like of the Queerwolf central crew, I feel like you and I have this mind connection

**Nay:** We do! It's true

**Brennan:** And so there's this segment of the show that's been promised and talked about, it's kind of entered the lore

**Nay:** *Oh God*

**Brennan:** It's called "Nay's Yeas or Nays". So I just wanna throw a couple topics at you

**Nay:** Okay

**Brennan:** They're all hotel-related

**Nay:** Okay

**Brennan:** It's kind of lightning round style

**Nay:** 'kay

**Brennan:** You know, if you approve of it, "Yea." If you don't approve of it, if it's cancelled, "Nay"

**Nay:** "Nay"

**Brennan:** And you can elaborate if you want. You don't have to elaborate if you don't have anything to say

**Nay:** Alright

**Brennan:** Just real quick…

**Brennan:** Mini-bar

**Nay:** Yea. Oh! But if it's free!

**Brennan:** Is it though? Is it ever?

**Nay:** If it's not, then no.

**Brennan:** Okay

**Nay:** Even if I'm Oprah rich, no

**Brennan:** Room service

**Nay:** Yes

**Brennan:** Okay

**Nay:** Even a broke bitch be like, "Yeah, send me up some fries."

**Brennan:** What's the word though?

**Nay:** Yea!

**Brennan:** Complimentary wifi

**Nay:** Yea

**Brennan:** I mean at the hotel I stayed at in Cincinnati I would say, "Nay" because it was very bad

**Brennan:** Gideon Bible

**Nay:** Nay

**Brennan:** Check-out on the TV

**Nay:** Nay

**Brennan:** Ah, you don't like that?

**Nay:** No.

**Brennan:** You actually like to like, talk to a person?

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm. We need to make eye contact, I need to know your name, you need to take this key, you need to clear me and I need to get my deposit back

**Brennan:** Okay. Fair enough. And you wanna make sure it doesn't like, accidentally not go through

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Oooh, that makes sense

**Nay:** I ain't playin' games though

**Brennan:** Okay, continental breakfast

**Nay:** Yea

**Brennan:** Okay

**Nay:** I love free food

**Brennan:** Unattended room service cart in the hallway?

**Nay:** Nay

**Brennan:** *What?* But you can steal shampoo and stuff

**Nay:** So, I'm a fan of stealing shampoo from cats like that. But the older I get, and the more I realize, I'm a Black person. If I get caught doing this I could *actually* go to jail for my life

**Brennan:** Is it actually a crime?

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** I don't know! That's the thing

**Brennan:** That's fair enough--

**Ayesha:** Fair enough

**Brennan:** You just wanna toe that line

**Nay:** You have to have a lot of money to fight those gray areas and I don't, so I'm goin' to jail

**Brennan:** You're right. Fair enough

**Nay:** And I ain't got no bail, so "Nay"

**Ayesha:** Fight the hallway

**Brennan:** Okay, last one. Someone died in this room

**Nay:** Yea. That's fine

**Brennan:** You're into it?

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Okay, cool. And that concludes "Nay's Yeas or Nays"

**Nay:** Is it like, "Martin Luther King died in this room"? Hell no.

**Brennan:** Interesting

**Nay:** Or, "I'm not sleepin' in here."

**Brennan:** Yeah

**Nay:** But…

**Brennan:** What's the line of person, like where does it stop? Like if it's like, "A *Real Housewife* died in this room"

**Nay:** You know what? You know what I actually think? It's like, "How nice is the room?" 'Cause if they're like, "The person you loved most in your entire life died in this room…"

**Brennan:** Okay, no

**Nay:** But is the room nice? 'Cause maybe Imma still stay here. I dunno. I ain't shit

**Brennan:** It's like the penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton or something?

**Nay:** Yeah. Yeah. They're like, "Your entire family was slaughtered here. Do you want…?" Like, "Yes, it's kind of nice."

**Brennan:** Is it complimentary?

**Nay:** Yeah. "Is it free?" So yes

**Brennan:** Okay, great! I don't know if that worked, let us know on Twitter

**Nay:** (laughing) Yeah

**Brennan:** Look, you've been asking for it and you got it, so all I can say is, "You're welcome."

**Nay:** Yeah, and you can send in what you would rather me "Yea or Nay" for next time

**Brennan:** Yeah, for sure! We'll bring it up time and again

## **Pride Float**

**Nay:** Well, I think I know the answer to this, but… I would not give this movie a Pride float

**Ayesha:** No

**Brennan:** No

**Nay:** Sometimes we also are like, "Does this movie have to do community service?"

**Ayesha:** *Damn!* Can we get a sparkler? Maybe not a float, can we walk on the side of the float with daisy dukes?

**Nay:** No, you can't (laughs) It depends

**Brennan:** Well, I don't think this movie is like--

**Nay:** (laughing) Daisy dukes! With a *sparkler*! **You're gay**

**Ayesha:** I'm just sayin'. Maybe we could be close to the float or what?

**Brennan:** I don't think this movie is harming or helping the queer community in any way

**Ayesha:** Okay

**Nay:** Right

**Brennan:** It stays in its lane, it should go to the Fourth of July parade

**Nay:** So maybe it should go to Pride with the sparkler and the daisy dukes

**Ayesha:** *See?*

**Nay:** Okay?

**Ayesha:** Come on! We're passing out fliers on the side

**Nay:** Okay

**Brennan:** It's like the bachelorette party that comes to the Pride parade

**Ayesha:** Ouch

**Nay:** Mmm-kay. Well, you want a short leash, *1408*. Those bachelorette parties in queer spaces are annoying as fuck

**Brennan:** It's like, "Oh boy, I sure love to be a prop in someone else's life!"

**Nay:** Yeah

**Ayesha and Nay:** *Hmmmm!*

**Nay:** Privilege

## **Quotes**

**Nay:** We also have a very special guest today, and I am going to let her introduce herself because who can do it better than you?

**Ayesha:** Mmm, you might be able to do it better than me

**Nay:** Who are you?

**Ayesha:** I'm Ayesha. "The Barber," I'm mostly known as

**Nay:** Right

**Ayesha:** Yeah. Let's see, I've been operating a barbershop in Los Angeles for the last five years, just opened up a cafe a couple months ago. You know, your all-around civil servant and movie horror buff connoisseur (evil laughter)

**Nay:** Yes. Okay. So silly. Yo, that barbershop

**Ayesha:** Okay, so I've had the barbershop for five years and recently it got destroyed earlier this year by a, what is that, a crane falling through the side

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** Oh my God!

**Ayesha:** Or last year, now

**Nay:** (sings) "Cranes in the sky…"

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Not the time!

**Ayesha:** Thanks. Too soon, too soon

**Nay:** Damn, that's so scary

**Ayesha:** Yeah, I just missed it by twenty minutes

**Nay:** (softly) Oh my God

**Brennan:** Oh my God! Well, I'm glad you're okay

**Ayesha:** I'm okay

**Nay:** Yeah. Another era. Such good memories

**Ayesha:** Not so much. We'll be back open soon

**Nay:** Fo' sure, fo' sure, 'cause nobody, 'cause nobody cuts hair like you, boo

**Ayesha:** I miss my barbershop

**Nay:** Yo

**Ayesha:** Yo, I miss my barbershop

**Nay:** Yo!

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** I remember one time my best friend was in town and I was like, "Hey do you wanna go with me to the barbershop? I'm about to get a fade," and we were there and she was like, "Bitch you didn't tell me that your barber takes an hour to fade you." I'm like, "'Cause you've never seen anything this beautiful."

**Ayesha:** Mm-mm. Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** "I'm sure you haven't seen this happen."

**Ayesha:** Nope.

**Nay:** And to this day, nothing has compared to yo' haircuts

**Ayesha:** That's what she said.

**Nay:** Yeah

**Ayesha:** Boom

**Nay:** So thank you for being here tonight. I think of you as someone who has definitely inspired me personally a lot. When I've thought about spaces that mean a lot to me, or like the kind of spaces that we wanna create for ourselves, the kind of spaces we *have* to create for ourselves? Fortunately or unfortunately? And you definitely always come to mind

**Ayesha:** Awww!

**Nay:** Because I remember walking into that barbershop and seeing so many queer Black women being experts at what they do

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** And that's *dope*

**Ayesha:** I think so

**Nay:** So thank you

**Ayesha:** Awww! Thank you, boo!

**Nay:** You're welcome!

**Nay:** I've been saving the very end of *Crazy Ex-girlfriend*

**Brennan:** (gasps) Uh-huh. Keep talking

**Nay:** And so I finish--

**Brennan:** I'm clutching my chest

**Ayesha:** Uh-huh, clutching pearls

**Nay:** I finished it, and of course I'm really sad about it because I *love* that show. But I'm also okay with it, because I just wanna see what Rachel Bloom does

**Brennan:** Yeah, she is free to go out and do something else beautiful and wonderful in the world

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** And the way they ended that story is exactly the way it needed to end

**Nay:** Yes

**Brennan:** It like transfers from this like stereotypical kind of crazy ex-girlfriend trope into this like, beautiful, sad mental health journey...

**Nay:** *Yo*

**Brennan:** That is hilarious and I'm so stunned by this whole show. Yeah, no

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** What did you think of the medley of songs in the final episode?

**Nay:** Oh, I *loved*. That was so good

**Brennan:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** And I think if someone had told me about all the singing in that show before I watched it, I probably wouldn't have watched the show, because I find myself as an adult less likely to watch a musical.

**Brennan:** Well, that's because you were poisoned by *Seven Brides for Seven Brothers*

**Nay:** (chuckling) Yeah, exactly. And so, no, yeah, I loved it. And that show… I don't think I've ever had a show resonate so much with me…

**Brennan:** *Yes!*

**Nay:** In terms of mental health. And I thought that was extremely extraordinary

**Brennan:** And just in terms of the representation on that show

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** It's first of all, beautiful in the regional Southern California humor

**Nay:** Of course

**Brennan:** Like any time they mention any *township*…

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** In greater Southern California, like the line in season one where it's like, "She got in to Cal State Northridge. It's the Harvard of Northridge!" But um, yeah, also in terms of...

**Ayesha:** You *love* this show. *Okay*? (chuckles)

**Brennan:** I love it so much, it's sick! But no, there's, it's not just, "Oh, there's a Filipino character," it's, "Oh, there's a Filipino character and his family and his friends and they're Filipino and Latino and they're, you know, actually representative of what California is like."

**Nay:** Yeah, totally

**Brennan:** 'Cause we're not just a bunch of white *Beverly Hills, 90210* people, we're everybody

**Nay:** Yeah, no. White supremacy does a good job of erasing people from like, every narrative

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm!

**Nay:** Yeah, and that's so fucked up. So Rachel Bloom-- and you know what? I feel like I'm always someone who, when queer women talk about being attracted to women that aren't queer, I'm like, "Can't relate. I don't-- meh." And I, you know, that really doesn't resonate with me, but you know, Rachel Bloom…

**Brennan:** She can get a pass?

**Nay:** She's so irreverent and like, straight-up vulgar? And I think when I meet women like that, I just assume that they're queer, because I'm like, yeah, "How could you even be this cool and not be queer?" But she's not, and she's fuckin' dope and I'm like, "Oh. Maybe I get it now." (chuckles) 'Cause she's bomb

**Brennan:** Yeah, no, there's always exceptions to rules. It doesn't mean that rules still shouldn't be there

**Nay:** Yeah, I guess so

**Brennan:** Like, my boyfriend implemented an Instagram rule which I really appreciate, is that he doesn't follow hot people on Instagram if they're straight. And I have done a purge on my Instagram and I feel so freed by that

**Nay:** That's *so* interesting. Huh! 'Coz at first I was like, "Wait. Like a rule for you? Like he's made this rule for you..."

**Brennan:** No no no! It's his personal rule that I have taken upon myself 'cause I think it's really valuable

**Nay:** Yeah, no, that's really interesting

**Brennan:** There's a couple that slipped through. They're mostly Zac Efron

**Nay:** Yeah. (amused) Okay. You and my Mom, *okay*? All over Zac Efron. My Mom literally calls him, "My new Daddy." She's like, "And I saw your new *Daddy* on TV, Zac Efron." And I'm like, "*What?!*" (chortling) I cannot, DAB

**Brennan:** That is a person, though, I would never wanna talk to in real life

**Nay:** Makes sense. Yeah. Don't meet your heroes, folks

**Brennan:** (amused) He's not my hero, but I (chuckling) you know

**Ayesha:** I unfortunately have been watching *Twilight Zone,* the reboot

**Brennan:** Uh-oh

**Nay:** (softly) Oh. Not feelin' it?

**Ayesha:** Yeah. I'm a big *Twilight Zone* fan, the original, OG, and they're trying too hard, and it's failing

**Nay:** Oh shit

**Brennan:** Oh! I haven't seen it yet

**Nay:** I haven't seen any of it

**Ayesha:** Yeah, I'm tryin' to support my boy Jordan, you know I'm a big fan of his, he sounds great, he looks great, the intro's great. The stories are just flat as fuck.

**Nay:** *Wow*

**Brennan:** How many episodes have you seen so far?

**Ayesha:** Three, just three. All three

**Brennan:** Oooh, that's a--

**Ayesha:** Yeah, I'm like, okay, first one? No problem. Second one (sighs). Third one, I was like, "Uh-oh."

**Brennan:** Any anthology show will be up and down, but that's not a great trend

**Ayesha:** Awww, and they're like re-doing classics

**Nay:** (sighs)

**Ayesha:** Like they redid the kind of a spin on the "20,000 Feet"

**Brennan:** Let that one go!

**Ayesha:** Yeah. And then they did one, hate to say in public, but Sanaa Lathan, Sanaa Lathan's acting was a little wavy, little wavy

**Nay:** Beyoncé in *Austin Powers*, you're like, "*Ohhhh.*"

**Ayesha:** I don't even remember that! That's how bad it was. I deleted that from my brain stem. And I feel like they're trying to be like, scary. It doesn't have to be a good ending…

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Ayesha:** Like, you know, they use this cop that just kept harassing and wouldn't disappear from them trying to take her and her son to college. And it was just like, "It's a nightmare! You can't escape this racist white cop!" You know, well, okay. Then don't have them escape. And then don't have them escape in such a politically correct kind of cheesy… you gotta watch it

**Nay:** Yeah, apparently

**Ayesha:** It was like (scoffs) (softly) Oh my God

**Nay:** I'm just sad, but we'll see what happens

**Ayesha:** I'm really sad about that one. Sorry, guys!

**Brennan:** It'll be like one of those shows in ten years where, "You've gotta give it five seasons, but *then*…"

**Ayesha:** Yeah, yeah. Y'all hold on. But Jordan Peele looks great. He sounds great

**Brennan:** So just watch the opening clips

**Ayesha:** Yeah. He sounds, he's doing his Rod Serling thing, he looks great. Suits are fantastic

**Nay:** Love a good suit

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Yeah, and then it's what, like a one minute a week time expenditure? I can definitely incorporate that into my schedule

**Nay:** I'm gonna try and watch all of it

**Brennan:** Yeah…

**Ayesha:** I'm gonna continue to watch it! I'm one of those. I'll keep watching it until it's… something

**Nay:** I hear that

**Brennan:** Because, it's CBS All Access, right?

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Brennan:** See, that's why I'm not keeping up. I don't know how to find it, I don't know where it is

**Ayesha:** Yes. I think it should've been on HBO

**Brennan:** Absolutely

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Brennan:** And then they could have *Tales From the Crypt*-ed it up, make it a little edgier

**Ayesha:** Yeah, I think that's the problem. It's a little soft, a little tee ball pitch

**Brennan:** Well, I don't have my intro music cue today…

**Nay:** Oh yeah.

**Brennan:** 'Cause Mark and Michael aren't here…

**Nay:** Sorry, coz I'm not doing it (laughs)

**Brennan:** That's okay. I'm not asking you to. But this is the penultimate La Llorona Corner. So, as frequent listeners know, I've been watching all the movies about the Mexican folk legend La Llorona in preparation for the new movie, which to be clear, I do not anticipate to be very good. But this was kind of just an excuse to do this, 'cause I wanted to do research into a topic that I found interesting. So I actually watched the, well, it came out in 2013 under the title *Her Cry: The La Llorona Investigation*, but it was never really released. It finally got a DVD release *this year* to rip off the new movie, under the new title, *The La Llorona Curse*, instead of *The Curse of La Llorona*

**Nay:** Right

**Brennan:** So, there wasn't *not* going to be a bad found footage in this franchise, or in this marathon I've been doing, and this is that one!

**Nay:** Okay

**Brennan:** We've got our whole thing of digital cameras and they keep glitching, because they don't wanna show that they edited the movie. And there's, it's all set in this suburban house that's clearly the director's house in southern Texas. But supposedly according to the lore, Hernán Cortés the explorer owned that house, (laughing) like six hundred years ago

**Nay:** Oh, no

**Brennan:** And it's just some *Edward Scissorhands* tract home, like, okay, sure

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** And I also, I shared images of the title cards of this movie on my Twitter, but the spelling is wrong… literally from spelling to grammar to *literally* the kerning which is the spacing between the letters and the words themselves, it's just off! It's really wonky

**Nay:** It's interesting

**Brennan:** Obviously it wasn't a very good movie. It's a lot of unknown actors ad-libbing lines about La Llorona and they're finding dolls that someone clearly bought at Toys "R" Us and buried in some dirt and were like, "This is where they were buried three hundred years ago!" But I will say it does gain a little bit of energy in a monologue that I did share on my Twitter that I'm also gonna share here. It's a beautiful clip, I wish you could *see* it, check out my Twitter, @itsrainingbrens! But it's a girl whose hands are moving *so* fast, it's like she's in the *Amityville Horror* house batting away flies while she's talking. Here's a little bit of that:

"For all I know, that bitch doesn't even exist! That bitch, I don't know, magically carried me over there. And that bitch is not even a girl, it's a *thing*. It is an *it*. That is what we're gonna remember forever, too. Her name is not Tina. Tina was three years ago or two years ago when she lived here. That is Tina. Tina is a dead bitch, gone!"

**Nay:** Ohh, that's something

**Ayesha:** *Oh, okay!*

**Brennan:** And that last line was very *Sorority Row*, which is why I liked it

**Nay:** Yeah. Seriously

**Brennan:** Um, yeah. So. Would not recommend. *But*, I do wanna recommend you check out the articles I released online this week about the culmination of this marathon. I wrote an article on AlternateEndings.com about why no movie can get La Llorona right and the five that you should watch anyway.

**Nay:** (chuckling) Yes!

**Brennan:** On my monthly column on DreadCentral, I also wrote kind of a primer on La Llorona to get you ready for the new movie and kind of explain her cinematic history and how she's been represented throughout the years and it can kind of give you an idea of what to look for going into the new movie

**Nay:** Sweet

**Brennan:** So check that out!

**Nay:** So how many total have you watched now?

**Brennan:** God, I *think* with the new movie it's gonna be nineteen

**Nay:** (laughs) Damn

**Brennan:** That is almost all of them. The ones that I skipped are ones that are literally just not available anywhere. Like someone made them probably as a thesis film at some university and it never saw the light of day but they still made an IMDB page for it, so I wrote it down

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm. Right

**Brennan:** It does not exist

**Nay:** Well damn. You stuck with it

**Brennan:** I sure did! I know how to commit, and that's not always a great thing. I honestly feel this last stretch has been really rough because the digital filmmaking boom of the late 2000s allowed a lot of not very good filmmakers to get things out there…

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** And look, that democratization of the technology is a great thing--

**Nay:** Yeah. Fuck yeah. Of course

**Brennan:** Because it also allows for *good* unknown filmmakers to get their stuff out there, but you know, it's two sides of a coin

**Nay:** I was thinking about that when you were talking about like grammar and spelling and was like, "You know what? It would be nice if folks who either didn't have access to education that would teach them the ways of, you know, our preferred grammar. Or people who just don't have the ability to learn those things." And I'm like, I wish there was *space* for those people like that to *do* jobs like that

**Brennan:** Like in terms of filmmaking and that kind of thing?

**Nay:** Yes! Anything! I wish that that wasn't necessary-- like I understand *why* it is a barrier, of course we have to communicate. But I'm somebody who like, well, I think when I first got out of school 'cause I spent so many years in school, grammar was so important and I had to correct all my typos and if I'm literally texting my best friend I'm literally correcting my typos. And I'm like, "Why? Are you gonna think I'm less smart if I don't correct that? And if that's the case, I don't care. That's on you." But I actually *hate* grammar policing and stuff. And I'm like, "Did you understand what that person said?" If the answer is, "Yes", then they spoke a language you understood. If the answer's "No," ask some clarifying questions. But like, there's no need to drag someone for something that is really indicative of like, your privileges, you know?

**Brennan:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** And so, yeah, I wish that when you democracize--

**Brennan:** Democratize?

**Nay:** Democratize these things, I hope-- I love that that allows people who didn't have access to have access, but I hear you about it also providing people with no talent the access

**Brennan:** Yeah, no. Like I said, it's good and bad. I did not mean to specifically criticize--

**Nay:** Oh, yeah

**Brennan:** The person making the film for the title cards, I mean they--

**Nay:** No, no, right. It's noticeable though

**Brennan:** Yeah. It's noticeable. But the thing is, if this was some student film or whatever that I watched, that's a different criticism lens to take an approach with

**Nay:** Oh yeah

**Brennan:** But this is a movie that *did* receive an official release from Wild Eye Releasing.

**Nay:** It's like, "What happened?" (chuckles)

**Brennan:** Their editor should have looked at this

**Nay:** Yeah! It's interesting what happened, yeah

**Brennan:** But no, I am obviously *very* fervently in support of everyone being able to get access to that kind of equipment and filmmaking

**Nay:** Right. Yeah

**Brennan:** And that's actually a major point of why I did this marathon. 'Cause look, we've had some fun here today, coz especially a lot of the recent ones I've watched are very, let's just say it. Bad. They are bad movies.

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** But the thing is, one thing that I encountered a lot in telling people about this marathon especially early on, was like, "I'm watching all these movies about La Llorona. I'm watching all these movies made in Mexico, they're regional Mexican productions, they're for an audience that's *not* American in most cases, starring people who aren't, directed by people who aren't." And a lot of people kind of responded in a way of like, "Oh, why would you do that?" Or "Oh, that's gonna be really harrowing and bad for you." And let me tell you what. It only got harrowing and bad once the Americans got involved. Look, there are some bad, like the 1933 film that I watched was pretty boring but it had some great moments. I don't think that blanket dismissal of an entire regional culture of cinema is something I want to invite and is something I found kind of irritating or vexing when I was talking to certain people. It was like, "I am doing this because I am genuinely interested in this and because I find something valuable on cinema."

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** "And just because it's not something you've heard of or it's not something that people can spend a lot of money on doesn't mean it's invaluable"

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** That's not the right word. "Not valuable."

**Nay:** Yeah. No, totally

**Brennan:** Anyway, that's my little soapbox and I'm just here to say there's a lot of really good films in this marathon and a lot of really bad films in this marathon, because in any group of people or items, that's how it's gonna be

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** I did this because it's a beautiful journey that I went on, and not because I wanted to mock and destroy a whole set of films

**Nay:** Yeah, no. I definitely took note of several of them and been like, "I'll definitely have to watch that one." Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

**Nay:** We're here to talk about *1408*, and of course y'all know we have our guests pick the film that we discuss. And so, Ayesha picked this film and I wanna know why

**Ayesha:** I love mindfuck horror films

**Nay:** Yeah

**Ayesha:** Yeah. Psychological stuff

**Nay:** Oof. It was, too (chortles)

**Ayesha:** Yeah. My favorite sub-category of horror, for sure

**Nay:** Yeah. I, especially the older I get… I understand my crazy better.

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** And it's more distressing to watch someone go through that kind of thing the older you get and the more you understand

**Ayesha:** Yeah, yeah

**Brennan:** There you go (cutting off the trailer). It's a spooky hotel room, the end

**Ayesha:** But, question: You guys watched the film, yeah?

**Nay:** (sarcastically) No, no we haven't watched it

**Ayesha:** I dunno if you just watch the trailer

**Nay:** Right, right

**Nay and Brennan:** We watched it

**Ayesha:** When did the room officially lock (John Cusack) in is the question

**Brennan:** Oooh

**Ayesha:** Okay, was the air conditioner service man, was he a part of the room or was he the last final way out?

**Brennan:** That's a really good point. Did his clock start counting down from an hour--

**Ayesha and Brennan:** After

**Brennan:** That point? I would say that point, probably

**Ayesha:** I would say it, too, but (the service man) acted so funny, that guy

**Nay:** He did

**Brennan:** Look, he was trying to live!

**Nay:** Which is my second Shady Summary. I'm like, "Listen to the Black people." Samuel L. Jackson was like, "Don't do it."

**Brennan:** Like here's a five-minute monologue about why you shouldn't go in this room

**Ayesha:** Right

**Nay:** "I will give you this eight-hundred dollar bottle of liquor, put you in a Presidential Suite," and this white man's like, "No." (laughs)

**Ayesha:** "No."

**Nay:** "I can get that on my own, son. I actually wanna go in this death room."

**Ayesha:** He actually took the bottle still, while some shady super shade

**Nay:** Yeah, he did

**Brennan:** And I feel like didn't it refill at one point and (John Cusack) is still goin' at it?

**Ayesha:** Still goin'. Yeah, I love that

**Nay:** Yeah. So I think it was definitely after. I think that was the last--

**Ayesha:** That was the last-- because the way he skirted around, I've seen this movie way too many times, the way (the service man) skirted around that hallway and they played that creepy music I was like, "Is he?"

**Brennan:** 'Cause he kind of vanishes

**Nay:** Right. It's true

**Ayesha:** Yeah, he does. It's kind of like, "Later," and (John Cusack) looks down the hall and it's like, *whaaaaa?*

**Nay:** Completely gone. Which I mean, I think that's exactly how you would act if you were the service technician

**Ayesha:** This is also facts. "I'm outta here!"

**Nay:** Like, "Peace."

**Ayesha:** "Peace."

**Nay:** "I am only coming to the door, and I can tell you how to do this."

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** This movie made me think a lot about, similar to *Let's Scare Jessica to Death*--

**Brennan:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** Just like, in a lot of these psychological thrillers where there's a person who isn't trusting their intuition

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm

**Nay:** There's a person who isn't trusting themselves, and it's driving-- like that's, I mean that's how a lot of people go crazy is where they aren't believing what they think *and* they were actually right

**Ayesha:** Right. Yeah, that's the creepy part, mental illness, are you just on the other side of a coin that we can't flip over?

**Nay:** Yeah, yeah

**Brennan:** Yeah. Sorry, I'm just pondering now. (*1408*) is a dark movie, it does have those dark themes to it. Especially in the sense that (John Cusack's) really lost his faith. Like the trailer says, after his daughter dies, he's really lost his faith and then there's the-- he's really almost. He *is* provoking the afterlife to try and give him a sign, basically

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** And it's like, "Is he just too far gone or is it finally happening?"

**Ayesha:** Right, right. He just like tears at 'em (indistinct)

**Nay:** Oooh, he's so cocky too

**Ayesha:** Yeah he is

**Brennan:** (softly) Oh God. (normal voice) All those snide tape recorder notes he makes while he's walking around?

**Ayesha:** Man that's great

**Nay:** I don't know what I would do if I interacted with someone acting like that with their tape recorder (chuckles) "*What is going on?*"

**Brennan:** But I will say, I was a little, I'm not sure, I wish the movie had *smoothed* me into his transition a little more

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** Because he has, by the thirty-three minute mark of this one hour and fifty-two minute movie, he has *snapped*

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** Yeah, he is

**Brennan:** Like the chocolates appear on his pillow and he is *immediately* at eleven, running around, opening shower curtains, smashing into walls…

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm. Yeah. I like when they take you out. When you think he's out. Even though you *never* think he's out--

**Brennan:** You're like, "I've seen a horror movie before, sir."

**Ayesha:** I mean, "I've watched a film before." Like the little clues they give you

**Nay:** Did you… I watched it on Amazon and I got the alternate ending

**Ayesha:** Ohhhh, that alternate, at the funeral?

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Did you?

**Ayesha:** It's awful

**Nay:** So when I was reading the synopsis on IMDb, I'm like, "Wait. That's not what I watched at all."

**Ayesha:** Yeah. The alternate endings are always awful

**Nay:** But I think I liked it that he died (chortles)

**Ayesha:** I like the other ending, they see, they hear the girl's recording and the wife knows that he wasn't full of shit. I dunno. They're both problematic

**Nay:** Yeah, I read that one, I read that one. To me, because I didn't like him…

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** I was *so* happy. I was like, "Whatever. Good I'm glad you died."

**Ayesha:** Right

**Nay:** And then because Samuel L. Jackson listens to the tape player in the car 'cause the wife won't take his belongings…

**Ayesha:** Right

**Brennan:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** When *he* hears the child's voice, that was *so* fucking creepy. I was like, "Oh, that's creepy."

**Brennan:** Also, anything that gives him more to do in this movie…

**Nay:** Yes!

**Ayesha:** Right! Yeah!

**Brennan:** 'Cause after that monologue scene, he shows up in the fridge for like thirty seconds

**Ayesha:** Yeah. That was a little problematic.

**Nay:** Right

**Ayesha:** The fridge scene. Any time Sam has on a wig, I want to see more, very seen scenes

**Brennan:** He just feels very empowered?

**Ayesha:** *Yes!*

**Nay:** *Okay? I feel that*

**Ayesha:** Listening. Hanging on every word

**Brennan:** Oh yeah! No, that's true.

**Ayesha:** *Pulp Fiction*, I mean you could name every film he has a wig on, it's better

**Nay:** (laughing) It's true!

**Brennan:** I haven't seen *Glass* (2019), I don't know if that…

**Ayesha:** *Unbreakable* (2000). Wig. Come on

**Brennan:** Oh hell yeah

**Ayesha:** Come on

**Brennan:** I will say, I don't know if either of you have performed on stage before, but there is something really empowering about getting into a costume and getting to transform yourself

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** For someone I knew, it was the shoes. Like, the shoes that they put on made them feel like they were who they were playing. Or it's like, "I don't wear high heels and now I am in high heels and it's totally a different person," or whatever have you. I think the power of the wig is really unparalleled

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** That's true! Just all around

**Ayesha:** A wig is a hat. A hat is a wig. You have on a wig, you have on a hat

**Nay:** Yeah

**Ayesha:** When he puts on hats, he's there!

**Nay:** Excellent points

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm!

**Nay:** (to Ayesha) You know, when we first talked, I was like, "Oh, I haven't seen that movie." And then, like I was saying earlier, didn't remember that I'd seen the movie until the part where his daughter dies again

**Ayesha**: Ohhh. That was awful

**Nay:** You know I remembered that...

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** It, it was awful, but the first time I saw it, my brother had recently lost a child…

**Brennan:** (softly) Oh, man

**Nay:** And *I*, that part *tore* me up.

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** Like I, it took me two years to *not* think it was funny when a kid died in a movie. Like now I'm good. I'll be like, "Hahaha yeah," but for two years I was really fucked up over that, and that's the moment that I remembered I'd seen this movie before. It was like, "*Ohhhhh*."

**Ayesha:** Interesting

**Brennan:** It sparked that…

**Nay:** *Oh*, when she was like, disintegrates--

**Ayesha:** Into ashes, yeah

**Nay:** Like the foam in *The Lure*...

**Brennan:** *Yeah!*

**Nay:** When she, when that just like dissipates

**Brennan:** It was just like that, "pop"

**Nay:** *Ohh*, it was sickening. That was sickening

**Brennan:** Well, no, there's-- look, at least Michael on the show has come out as very pro-child death in movies

**Nay:** Yes. For sure (chortles) That's why you sick, bro

**Brennan:** There are different ways that movies do it

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Coz I mean it's true of *anything* that's represented on film. Like there's a movie called *Bloody Moon* from 1981

**Nay:** I have not seen it

**Brennan:** Oh, you should! It was directed by Jess Franco, who did *Vampyros Lesbos*

**Nay:** Oh! Yeah!

**Brennan:** Yeah. But there's a part where just out of nowhere this kid we've never met before is playing on a street and he just gets *slammed* by a truck, and just the sheer uncanniness of it is kind of, it kind of elicits one of those half-laughs of just such unexpected lunacy?

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** And like that movie is crazy and you're already laughing at things that are happening in that movie, but in *1408*, she's just fully going limp in his arms and it's *brutal*

**Nay:** Jess Franco's a fuckin' freak

**Brennan:** (amused) He is

**Nay:** *Yooo*, what! I have to watch that

**Brennan:** Yeah, you should

**Nay:** Her going limp sorry, I'm hopping around, but her going limp, that was...

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** It also looked like, convincing. She's like, "No, Daddy." They do that in a lot of movies, where they, you know, it's not actually the kid and they're like, "Daddy, no, it's me!"

**Ayesha:** Well then they made her walk on *glass* and rubble to get to him

**Nay:** Yes. Fought hot coals or whatever they are

**Ayesha:** He did his job! John (indistinct)

**Brennan:** There's a lot in this movie

**Nay:** There's *so much* in this movie. I definitely, when the snow started I was like, "This is my nightmare."

**Brennan:** *Oh yeah*

**Ayesha:** Oh yeah. All the senses

**Nay:** *Oh* my God. Yeah

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm. From hot to cold. That was *good*

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** And that's so, like the way that they could completely transform the environment in what's essentially a one-room movie?

**Ayesha and Nay:** Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** That was really cool!

**Ayesha:** That was cool

**Nay:** That was super-cool. When he, ugh, when he thinks he has escaped and he's at the post office?

**Ayesha:** Mmmm!

**Brennan:** Ooooh!

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm!

**Nay:** And they start tearing down the walls and the glass. I was like, "This is really nuts!"

**Ayesha:** I love that. And that the guy in the post office was the same guy from the--

**Nay:** The bellboy, yeah

**Ayesha:** Yeah! I love stuff like that

**Brennan:** I will say though, I'm really grateful the movie had a flashback to the bellboy at the beginning

**Ayesha:** Because I wouldn't remember that shit

**Brennan:** Yeah

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** 'Cause all the people that he notices, like the waitress or whatever at the restaurant, they're all these really bland white people that look like every extra from the movie

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** And I'm like, (sotto voce) "I don't know who that is!"

**Nay:** You know, there was something so distinct about the way he said, "No," to the bellboy that made me think, "Remember that for later."

**Brennan:** Yeah

**Ayesha:** The way they zoomed in on his face, yeah

**Nay:** Yeah, I was like, "Oh, I'm supposed to remember this."

**Ayesha:** Curious. Is the whole hotel haunted

**Nay:** *Right*

**Ayesha:** Because there's entities, the phantom--

**Nay:** The babies, the stroller, everything was rolling downstairs

**Ayesha:** She was downstairs

**Brennan:** Mmm, that *Rosemary's Baby* baby carriage that looks like the carapace of an insect

**Nay:** Yes

**Brennan:** *It's so gross*!

**Nay:** *Yes!*

**Ayesha:** I love that the room was giving him a chance to get out, because you remember he walks in a complete circle and ends up right back at the elevator

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** Oh, right! Yeah, he does!

**Ayesha:** And it opens up for him and is like, "One more time."

**Nay:** "Last chance."

**Ayesha:** "Last chance." It gave him a few times and then it said, "Fuck it, you're in here."

**Brennan:** Yeah, "We're gonna change that emergency map."

**Ayesha:** (chuckling) "You *demanded*."

**Nay:** I love how the floor plan changed

**Brennan:** Oh! Like that itself was chilling

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm. Yeah. That was good

**Nay:** Yes. That was chilling. Him trying to walk to another room on the ledge and then showing the outside and there's no windows but his, that was freaky

**Ayesha:** Yeah, that was good

**Nay:** Ohhh, him crawling through the vent and seeing different memories?

**Ayesha:** I just wish they would've showed more of a variety of people. They kept showing the same woman jumping out the window...

**Nay:** Yeah

**Ayesha:** If all these people have died--

**Nay:** Fifty-six

**Ayesha:** Yeah, fifty-six, yeah, yeah

**Brennan:** There was the guy from the bathtub, right?

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Brennan:** And then the woman jumping and then the Clint Howard character with a hammer

**Ayesha:** Yes

**Nay:** Oh, the person across the way…

**Ayesha and Brennan:** *Ohhhh!*

**Nay:** That started imitating him? And then it was really just him? That was very freaky

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** Imitation always scares me. If someone in a movie starts imitating someone's voice, that freaks me the fuck out

**Ayesha:** Right

**Nay:** I'm done. I'm like that shit is scary

**Brennan:** Yeah, and that's also he's not safe even in this other building, this room has kind of exuded its influence throughout everything he can see

**Nay:** Wild

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** When the sound goes away and he-- that was scary

**Brennan:** Hell yeah

**Ayesha:** Yeah. Bad acid trip

**Brennan:** I will say one thing. This movie obviously has this really incredible uncanny scary imagery, like that corpse in the vents?

**Nay:** Yes

**Brennan:** That starts chasing after him?

**Ayesha:** Ohhh, I don't like that. I didn't like that part

**Brennan:** Uh-uh! No thank you!

**Ayesha:** Well I just kept thinking when he comes out the vent, it's just like the vent is still open, "Close it!" Like is it gonna slither down? Eugh! I don't like that

**Brennan:** Yeah. Just the one thing I will say about that: I didn't feel I had enough downtime in-between all the scary stuff

**Ayesha:** Mmm, sure

**Brennan:** Especially in such a long movie. By the end I felt kind of numb to it

**Ayesha:** Sure. Yeah

**Brennan:** I was like, "Oh, here's another scary thing. I get it."

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** That's kind of how I feel about *Mother!*

**Brennan:** *Ohh!*

**Ayesha:** Oh, okay

**Nay:** I'm like, "I mean, at this point. I'm not really--"

**Brennan:** "I've seen it."

**Nay:** "I've hit my pinnacle of anxiety and shock. At this point I'm just ridin'." Yeah

**Ayesha:** Have you seen *Through The Eyes of the Mother* or…?

**Brennan:** *The Eyes of My Mother*?

**Ayesha:** *Through Eyes of the Mother*? It's one of the most disturbing films of all time

**Nay:** Oh! I started it and then realized like, "Oh bitch. You actually have to pay attention to this?" So I stopped it, so I could watch something else while I looked at my phone. I put it on my list, though

**Ayesha:** Yeah. Check it out. It's twisted

**Nay:** 'Kay. Definitely. It's on my Netflix. Yeah

**Ayesha:** It's like *Human Centipede* but on the opposite side, like why would someone make this? Like this is so dark. *Human Centipede*, why would someone make this? This is so ridiculous

**Nay:** I made so many of my friends watch *Human Centipede*

**Brennan:** *Oh my God*

**Nay:** And they were like, "*Fuck you.*"

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** I'd be like, "No no no, we gotta watch this!"

**Ayesha:** (chuckling) Ewww, I can't believe…

**Nay:** And then they were like, "Bitch, are you kidding me?" (laughs)

**Ayesha:** How do you pitch that film? How do you walk into a room and pitch that?

**Nay:** *Yo*

**Brennan:** It was a German film so I was kind of like, "Yeah!"

**Nay:** Shoot. Kind of what we were talking about earlier. Audacity. Shoot your shot.

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** Like, "Might as well."

**Brennan:** And who's a more mediocre white man than the director of *The Human Centipede*?

**Nay:** And *Human Centipede 2*…

**Ayesha:** Ugh. How many? Three or four?

**Nay:** Three. There's three

**Ayesha:** Oh, Jesus

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** I just found the first one so boring!

**Ayesha:** Yeah!

**Nay:** Yeah, it was slow. But then once-- I just feel like its ability to make people uncomfortable--

**Brennan:** That is true

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** That is like, so for me--

**Brennan:** Unparalleled

**Nay:** I loved watching my friends going like, "I hate you! This is awful!" And I was just like cackling in the corner. I thought that shit was so funny

**Brennan:** Okay. I totally feel that. It's the same Instinct of why I keep getting you to try the Aussie Bites in the kitchen

**Nay:** It's fucking gross. I'm not doing it

**Brennan:** It's like, they're these ridiculous health food snack cake things. And all the ingredients seem fine. It's like, "Apricots, raisins, flax seeds."

**Nay:** No.

**Brennan:** It's like, whatever. I'm aware of these

**Nay:** No

**Brennan:** But then you eat them and it's like eating a bird's nest

**Nay:** Altogether? It literally...

**Ayesha:** Ewww

**Nay:** Exactly. He's like, "Please try it." I'm like, "No. I can literally smell," coz y'all know my sense of smell is out of this world. I'm like, "This smells like the rabbit pellets my rabbit used to leave."

**Ayesha:** Ewwww! Yuck. I don't blame you

**Nay:** I'm like, "No. I'm not eating that." Not when the kitchen is full of perfect things

**Brennan:** That is so true

**Nay:** Oooh, that kitchen. I told Brennan earlier it's my favorite room in the world

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** The Blumhouse kitchen (laughs)

**Ayesha:** There are a lot of things in there

**Brennan:** So, what else is going on in *1408*? We have not been talking about the movie for like, five minutes

**Ayesha and Nay:** Right

**Nay:** Well, you know, something I was thinking about, just because there's so much loss in the movie. Sometimes he loses the same person over and over again, and definitely loses himself a few times. 'Cause obviously on this show, we always are thinking like, "Are there either very obvious queer elements in this film? Or is there something that speaks to us as queer people, *or* is there still something broader that you know is just kind of a queer theme." And I was thinking about loss. Something else I've been thinking a lot about lately is just how for so many queer people, we have-- well, this is not every queer person's story, of course, but a lot of us don't have access to our families the way we might like to. Whether it's because we just can't deal with their shit, or they don't wanna deal with ours or us, and how we have to create family around us, of our loved ones. And how obviously that's awesome that we have such wonderful people in our lives currently, but how, for me anyway, there's always this kind of low-level heartbreak that I can't spend a lot of time with very much, because it doesn't feel good

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** And I saw a meme recently that was like, "Being queer is your parents literally knowing nothing about you."

**Ayesha:** Oh shit, oh! Yeah

**Nay:** Or something like that, or, "your family knowing nothing about you." And I was like, "Wow." So I mean that's not necessarily the kind of loss that happened in the movie

**Ayesha:** Right

**Nay:** But loss in general, I think sometimes for us to live as authentically as we want to, we have to lose a lot of people

**Ayesha:** Sometimes people just don't know themselves, so y'know, it's like I think maybe *that* has a lot to do with how, y'know, if we're just talking in generalities, queer folks, how we deal with our families because we're forced to know ourselves a little bit deeper than your average bear. And most people just coast

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Ayesha:** And I can only speak from experience. When you learn in any realm, whether it be self-awareness or spiritual or anything, when people aren't on the same page it's kinda hard to be in the same book, y'know?

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm!

**Ayesha:** So maybe sometimes that definitely can create wedges that are there simply because you know, "Baby, I'm on the wave. I'm forced to know aspects of self that most people aren't."

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** Yeah! Absolutely. And I mean, because in *1408*, it's a nuclear, heterosexual, heteronormative family there's nothing explicitly queer about it. But, as queer people we always have to find ways to live inside an explicitly heteronormative world and apply our own experience to it. So we can queer any fucking movie...

**Nay:** Yep

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Brennan:** By just taking the emotional undercurrent of it and seeing how this connects to us. And I mean, that's what both of you are doing. I took a little bit less of a heart wrenching approach to it…

**Nay:** Yeah, I'm drama. Don't worry about it (laughs)

**Brennan:** No no no! I think my transition into queer life has been very smooth. I have a very good connection with my family still. I'm very very lucky in that regard.

**Brennan:** So I just wanna make sure the conversation doesn't skip out on the fact that The Carpenters are in this movie

**Nay:** Oh, no! One of the creepiest parts!

**Ayesha:** Yeah! Let's go. That's the creepiest

**Nay:** A repetitive song is so scary in a movie

**Brennan:** Oh yeah

**Nay:** "Jeepers Creepers"? Fuck you

**Ayesha:** How 'bout when The Carpenters came back on and that clock rewound and I was like, I was exhausted at that point already

**Brennan:** That *Groundhog Day* moment

**Ayesha:** I was like, "Jump out the window," shit

**Nay:** (laughing) Yes!

**Ayesha:** I can't. I can't anymore

**Nay:** Ooof

**Brennan:** I just, I mean, because there's something to be said about-- I mean,The Carpenters, I just feel so comforted and enveloped by them

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmmm

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** And then twisting and distorting them into this kind of prison?

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** *Ohhh*, when the music, when it starts to go just a *little* off-key and it starts to warp?

**Ayesha:** (sings a bit of the warped music)

**Nay:** Oh my God, don't do that shit! No

**Brennan:** And the thing I liked about that is that they *don't* really change Karen Carpenter's voice that much, so there's still that nugget of normalcy and everything else is melting around it

**Nay:** Yeah, like that damn room

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Nay:** Oh, when the phone melted? I love it

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Brennan:** That was really cool!

**Nay:** That was cool

**Ayesha:** You know, Sam Jackson's man-weave is pretty queer, in that vest. That's a gay trend right now

**Nay:** I mean…

**Ayesha:** That hat he had on. *That's* a check

**Nay:** (sighs after laughing) The gays and their hats. You know, I went to this party last night, full of gays. Actually, it was wonderful. It was, Chingy was here a few weeks ago and she talked about it

**Ayesha:** Oh, that her?

**Nay:** No, no. Not Chingy the rapper

**Ayesha:** Oh

**Nay:** This is the gay Chingy, of dyke Instagram

**Ayesha:** Chingy the rapper is the gay Chingy too, right?

**Nay:** Right. Okay, that was Houston, right?

**Ayesha:** Everybody's gay until proven straight in my book. It's easier that way

**Nay:** True. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, she had told y'all about a party she was about to throw and she threw a party and it was good. Anyway, the point of the story is gays and their hats. Because I'm taller than most people, I just got stabbed with so many hats. And I'm like, "You know what? You don't have to hug me. It's fine."

**Brennan:** Wait, *where* was this party? Was it indoors?

**Nay:** It was at Faultline

**Ayesha:** *Heeey*, throwback

**Brennan:** So this is inside *at night* I presume

**Nay:** You know L.A.

**Brennan:** I know, I know

**Nay:** Like, "Here's my hat and my sunglasses."

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** Yeah

**Ayesha:** No matter the time

**Brennan:** Look, I resent the douchebag wearing sunglasses indoors trope, because I *do* have to wear sunglasses indoors sometimes because I do have a photosensitivity. So, in rooms like the *famous Blumhouse kitchen*, which has very open windows and very nice lighting, I can't really handle the direct sunlight so I have to wear sunglasses. And I always feel self-conscious when I have to do that because I think someone else thinks that I'm a dipshit who thinks he's too cool, and I wish those people would stop so I could just do my thing and nobody would have to think I'm them

**Nay:** I feel that. There have been things in my life that I have felt that way about. But you're a fuckin' boss. You do that, you just walk around in your fuckin' sunglasses

**Brennan:** I mean, I gotta!

**Nay:** Yeah, I mean you gotta, right? But yeah, I hear ya. So many hats, so many bills in my cheek. I'm like, "Y'all, I'm tired of that."

**Brennan:** There is one thing I noticed in this movie that kind of always takes me out of movies and this is *entirely* my fault. But there is a scary part where all the paintings on the walls start to change.

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm, that is scary

**Brennan:** Because it's generic hotel art that he's making fun of on his tape recorder

**Nay:** Oh my God, he was roasting it!

**Brennan:** I kind of lived for that, it was great

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Nay:** He was roasting it!

**Brennan:** He was writing his Yelp review for The Dolphin Hotel. But the thing is, parts of it must have been CGI or whatever, but it seemed like the paintings were shifting between static paintings of different images, just kind of like an old nickelodeon, like a flip book, just different images that were still images, and I was like, "Somebody had to paint all of those!"

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** "That seems like so much work!"

**Ayesha:** Ooof

**Brennan:** And, I dunno, I was just a little overwhelmed by that

**Nay:** Yeah, I was exhausted in that movie

**Ayesha:** Yeah, it's exhausting

**Brennan:** It is *generally* overwhelming

**Nay:** Yeah. I feel like I got my ass beat (chuckles)

**Ayesha:** Especially at the end, when he, you know, I think we forgot about his father coming back in the bathroom, that emotional scene

**Brennan:** Oh yeah!

**Nay:** Ohhhh yeah

**Ayesha:** And he's like throwin' stuff, his daughter's turned into nothing, he's just exhausted. And then the room just--

**Brennan:** Just clicks back into place, yeah

**Ayesha:** Revamps like, "Do-do-do-doop! And again." Like, Jesus Christ

**Brennan:** Well, I think that's why none of the endings are really satisfying on this movie 'cause you can't really--

**Nay:** Trust it

**Brennan:** End it

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm

**Brennan:** Like if he's gonna be trapped here and driven mad, there's not a way to, you know, hit credits and have it really be satisfying?

**Ayesha:** Yeah. Yeah. I was satisfied and unsatisfied with the movie. I have a problem with rewatching films over and over and over

**Brennan:** Like you mean…?

**Ayesha:** Even if I don't like it all the way

**Brennan:** Interesting. I mean, if there's …

**Nay:** Why is it a problem?

**Ayesha:** I don't know. My girlfriend's like, "*You're watching this again?*" Like, I've watched *The Terminator* series…

**Nay:** Well, yeah

**Brennan:** Yeah

**Ayesha:** That's my all-time favorite

**Brennan:** Nobody's questioning that!

**Ayesha:** My girlfriend is

**Brennan:** Okay. Fair enough

**Ayesha:** She's like, "Really? *T2* **again**?" Like it's good white noise

**Nay:** He said, "I'll be back."

**Ayesha:** Shit

**Brennan:** Yeah. Well, look, my boyfriend has had to sit through me watching nineteen Llorona movies in the living room. It's the burden of the queer horror fan partner. And that's fine!

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm!

**Nay:** (sighs) Can't relate (laughs) Somebody watch a movie with me, thanks!

**Ayesha and Brennan:** I'll watch a movie with you!

**Nay:** Awww, thank you!

**Ayesha:** Mmm-hmm!

**Brennan:** You're welcome

**Nay:** Sweeties

**Ayesha**: Did you cry, or were you sad when the kid in *Pet Sematary* (1989) died? The original? Thinking back to kids crying and laughing

**Nay:** No. No, that kid is *so* cute

**Brennan:** *Gage!*

**Nay:** *Oh my God!*

**Ayesha:** That kid is awful!

**Nay:** It is awful!

**Ayesha:** Okay

**Nay:** It's awful

**Brennan:** That movie is like one of Stephen King's most harrowing plots, but the '89 movie is also kind of silly

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** So it's like a weird balance

**Ayesha:** Hmmm. It is, but I like it

**Brennan:** Like I could see it going either way depending on how you approach it

**Nay:** It's like, "How can you kill anyone with that tiny little scalpel?"

**Brennan:** But he's *so adorable*!

**Nay:** It was so cute, I know!

**Ayesha:** The best part is the aunt in the room--

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Oh, Zelda?

**Nay:** Mmm-hmm

**Ayesha:** That would turn around and--

**Nay:** Ewwww! Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm

**Ayesha:** That was registered as too scary to watch when I was coming up, like, "Whoa!"

**Brennan:** Oh yeah

**Nay:** That's definitely (indistinct) watch that

**Ayesha:** I was like, "This is hardcore. Fuck this shit."

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Yeah, no, because it's like what you bring to the movie is what you take out of it, in *any* movie

**Ayesha:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Like there are ones that do it more conclusively, like *1408*, almost no one is gonna find that particular child death funny--

**Ayesha:** Yeah, not at all

**Nay:** Michael (laughs)

**Brennan:** Except for-- yeah. But also there's people who laugh when they're overwhelmed by something or whatever--

**Ayesha:** Sure

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Or they're not accepting what the movie's giving them. If they didn't like the movie up to that point, they're like, "I'm not gonna take this from you. You're not gonna manipulate me and I'm gonna fight against that." You know, no emotional reaction is invalid

**Nay:** It's like the maid who gouged out her eyes in the bathroom--

**Ayesha and Brennan:** *Oooooh!*

**Nay:** And was just laughing hysterically, I was like, "That's scary."

**Ayesha:** Ooof.

**Nay:** Yeah

**Brennan:** Why do you think they still clean the hotel room even though they know it's haunted and they're trying to push people away from it

**Nay:** For drama

**Ayesha:** Yeah. I was like, "Come on."

**Brennan:** Yeah

**Nay:** Like, "I'm out of here."

**Brennan:** Samuel L. Jackson is a messy bitch who lives for drama?

**Nay:** Yeah. (chuckles) Yeah

**Ayesha:** Absurd

**Nay:** He's like, "This is as close as I come to 1408 except for that time of the month."

**Ayesha:** I'm like (rimshot), (indistinct) periods

**Brennan:** When Aunt Flo's in town!

**Ayesha:** *Right.*

**Nay:** (singing) Period sex!

**Brennan:** What's the name of this cafe and where is it located?

**Ayesha:** Stokely's. 3500 West Pico right here in mid-city. I don't tweet. Well, the cafe doesn't tweet yet, so…

**Brennan:** Stay tuned

**Ayesha:** Yeah, stay tuned. Stokely's LA on Facebook

**Nay:** Any of your own social media information you wanna give?

**Nay and Brennan:** You don't have to if you don't want to

**Ayesha:** ayeshathebarber, that's fine. And that's it, folks. That's where you can find me! Not returning DMs on ayeshathebarber!

**Brennan:** And I'm gonna restart that hour clock because (plays "We've Only Just Begun")

**Nay:** Well, it's been real y'all. Michael, we miss you

**Brennan:** We really do. There were certain pauses where I'm like, "Michael would have something to say in this part."

**Nay:** Yeah. Michael would be making a dong joke if he was here

**Brennan:** Yeah, he would

**Ayesha:** Awww, I love him and I don't even know him

**Nay:** Yeah, he's great

**Brennan:** He's a beautiful, very tall man

**Nay:** *Yeah*

## **Previous Episode**

Episode 30: “The Loft of Lesbian ASMR” (w/ Jeff Nelson!)

## **Next Episode**

Episode 32: “OBGYN Satan Worshiper” (w/ Kara Vallow!)