T’was some months ago that we purchased tickets for Podcast-A-Palooza 2020, a lifestyle hotel takeover slated for October in Miami, Florida. The original date was in May over one of the rare weekends Erin is required to work. It was never really an option for us.
But then COVID hit the U.S. in March. States were shut down and the event rescheduled for later in 2020 in the hopes the world would be coming out on the better end of this pandemic. Going to this event was back on the table.
Also around the time of this rescheduling, we had the great pleasure of chatting with Cate and Darrell of Swinging Downunder; they had us on their podcast to talk about drugs and swinging. #TypeCasting #OnBrand
I won’t lie. Engaging with them virtually for the podcast certainly whet my interest in meeting them face to face. Now that we could make it schedule-wise, we had to consider if we actually wanted to.
Let me tell you a little bit about how Shane’s brain “works.” I get stuck in thought loops very easily. And by thought loop I mean I imagine scenarios in vivid detail and replay them over and over. It’s like watching the same episode of a TV show on repeat, but things go a little differently each time. Or a lot differently sometimes.
I find it’s useful for my writing. By the time I sit down to put a scene on paper, I’ve played it out a hundred times or more, refining the details and dialogue.
When it comes to real life, these thought loops can either build up my optimism for things or snowball my downward spirals of self-reproach.
Or both.
I’m contrary like that.
So When I Finally Brought Up Podcast-A-Palooza….
We were still in the midst of a state-imposed quarantine, but we were still hopeful things would be better in a few months’ time. We were having a drug night (2C-B if you’re curious). I went on for like two solid hours about how I’d imagined us going. And all the ways I’d imagined that going. Good and bad.
I’m not sure which outnumbered the other.
You see dear reader, by the time I was telling Erin all this, I’d been going through the loops for at least a week. I’d had dozens of imagined conversations with Mr. and Mrs. Monogamish. Had illusory drinks with Paige and Penn. Gotten all hippie/witchy with Tarra and James. Nerded out with the Bedhoppers.
I’d also landed several off-putting jokes. Awkwardly interrupted conversations. Completely run out of anything interesting to say. Gotten the “Ah…the drug people. Yeah…that’s…we’re not into that, thanks. Oh, look, it’s those people! We should…go talk to them…and not you.”
At the end of my stream-of-consciousness spewing, I ended with something like, “Ah, well. Maybe at some point we’ll have a chance to meet them.” I was just off-loading my thought process.
Erin, however, was confused. “I thought you were trying to convince me we should go?”
Aghast, I said, “Um, hell no I don’t think we should go!” Had she not been listening to all the awful scenarios I had described in which I made a fool of myself in front of these esteemed content creators?
A Quick Aside
This reminds me: You know that expression “Never meet your heroes”? I used to think it was referring to how if you meet someone you look up to, they can’t live up to your expectations. Thus, invariably, you’ll be let down.
I have discovered it actually means that if you do get to meet your hero face to face, you will act like an idiot and embarrass yourself in their presence.
I know this to be true.
I’ve done it.
…Erin Thought We Should Go to Podcast-A-Palooza
All my prattling about Podcast-A-Palooza convinced Erin we should give it a shot. We’d talked about going to a lifestyle resort (perhaps I’ll write about misgivings regarding embarking on that adventure some other time). This Miami trip would be like a trial run. Less time. Less cost. Easier travel than going to Mexico.
We’d also want to try out a hotel takeover, and we knew this one would have everything we’d want and need to have a good time. The theme parties were right up our alley. Almost as if they were handpicked to be #OnBrand with our content (obviously they weren’t, though; more on that later).
The event would certainly be well planned and well organized. We’ve witnessed the amazing detail Cate (and Darrell we guess?) puts into everything, and Podcast-A-Palooza would surely receive extra attention. We’d be hard-pressed to find another lifestyle event that so neatly matched what we’d look for our first time.
As much as we love visiting New Orleans, Naughty in N’awlins feels too big and hectic. Like it would be too many people across too many events to make meaningful connections. Someday, maybe.
And we’d “know” some of these attendees. “You’ve interacted with a bunch of these podcasters on Twitter,” she pointed out.
I wasn’t sure if that’s a selling point. Sure…I have, and those exchanges have seemed fun and positive and mutually enjoyed….
“Shane,” you say, “you cannot be this neurotic!”
To which I reply: Have you noticed how often I talk to myself in these posts? I’m absolutely this neurotic!
But Erin balances out my hyperactive, overthinking brain. Which usually boils down to her saying a kinder version of “The things you imagine never play out that way in real life.”
Fair point well made.
Stage 5: Acceptance
With the question of whether we wanted to go now answered, we then had to figure out if we were willing to go. After all, there’s this worldwide pandemic going on. But we had hope.
Travel insurance was another matter. Apparently, it doesn’t cover a whole hell of a lot when there’s a pandemic going on. We figured the most likely scenarios were either (a) it was safe and the event happened as planned or (b) it was canceled and we got our money back.
I had about 20 other scenarios planned out, some of them involved a 16-hour drive to Miami, but those were the two main ones. The real worst-case scenario was that Florida was open and the event went on, but our local area was shut down so we couldn’t get to it.
Almost immediately after we registered, Governor DeSantis started making bad call after bad call. Within a month or so, Florida had become the epicenter of the virus. We watched the news with trepidation. We were invested at this point and wanted to go! But it wasn’t looking good from a safety standpoint.
Don’t get me wrong. I was still nervous as fuck. But excited as well. I even reread Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There for the Alice in Wonderland party theme.
A “Quick” Aside
Yes, they are in fact two different books, though they often seem conflated into one story. Most of the visual retellings I’ve seen (of which there are many) draw characters and elements from both without distinguishing between the two sources.
The most accurate version I’ve seen was the one I grew up watching, even with that whole plotline of the Jabberwocky occasionally showing up and chasing Alice around, which is novel to that telling. This version links the two books into one continuous story, but it does a fair job keeping the “realms” separate by having Alice “return home” briefly between adventures. After all, there’s little evidence that the world behind the mirror is the same place to which Alice traveled when she fell down the rabbit hole.
And the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen are two different characters, despite how often they are combined in movies. The cards are in the first story and the chess pieces in the second. They certainly don’t fight each other. Though I did find that to be a delightful twist in the Tim Burton movie.
No, I never did decide which character to dress as for that party. The caterpillar felt like a good fit, though, considering he smokes a hookah and explains how to use the mushroom.
And Then It Was Cancelled
Unfortunately, earlier this month Podcast-A-Palooza was officially cancelled. It was the right call, of course, and we salute Cate and Darrell for making it. It couldn’t have been easy. They had put a lot of effort into the planning and preparation. Twice!
Way to screw this up for me, DeSantis!
For us, I mean. All of us.
And everyone who wanted to go to Disney World.
But mostly me. And Erin, too.
The Games We Might Have Played
In the months after getting tickets, Erin and I had a few running jokes about how things might go down. “Games” we could play to amuse ourselves. My thought loops didn’t just stop because we’d made the decision to go. But I tried to keep them on the lighter side, which resulted in us having fun with these ideas.
Do We Know You?
One such game was to go incognito. We’d announce on the blog and on social that we were going and even tweet about being there and the sessions we attended. Except that we wouldn’t be there as Shane and Erin but rather as our real selves, using our real names. Cate and Darrell might be able to identify us, but they’re the only people who have seen our faces.
I’d have been curious if anyone else could or would guess who we were.
I think it was Erin who pointed out the flaw in this: People might be more interested in meeting Shane and Erin than the real us.
Fair point well made.
What’s Erin on Tonight?
We’ve talked about Erin’s social anxiety and how she occasionally self-medicates to get through stressful situations. This game, then, would be for people to try to identify what, if any, substance she might be on after engaging with her. As we’ve said before: if you didn’t know, you probably couldn’t tell. It would be interesting to see what people thought.
Though we have also stated we don’t mix drugs and sex clubs. But I do like experimenting. For Science! But there was a strict no illicit drugs policy. (Really? The party themes were Alice in Wonderland, “Desert Festival” [AKA, Burning Man], and Rock ‘n Roll. All of those are basically beacons of drug culture [for good or for ill].) We certainly wouldn’t want to get kicked out. And we are obviously avid rule followers…. Right….
Though there are substances that can be used to get high that have more ambiguous legality. Just saying.
Would anyone really question it if my “Desert Festival” costume featured a belt with two hip holsters for whip-cream dispensers and a dozen loops and a hip pouch for holding N2O canisters?
Yes. Yes, they probably would. But whip cream could still be fun at a lifestyle party in its own right. Or just added to drinks. So, you know, there’s that, too.
Want Some Candy?
I was going to go around with a bunch of Pez and just offer them to people to see if anyone questioned it. Obviously I wouldn’t be giving out drugs disguised as candy. I don’t think that’s a thing. At least not something done on purpose. Unless the giver is completely devoid of ethics.
The Flirting Game
I hadn’t quite figured out how this one was going to work. Given that I can neither flirt with people nor identify if someone is flirting with me, the game would center one or both of those elements. It might require Erin and I comparing notes after engagements to see if we agreed on if there was flirting going on.
I could have just asked people “are you flirting with me?” if I thought that they were during a conversation. But that might get real awkward for people to then be like, “Um…no I was not. And now I must walk away from you.”
I suppose I could have put it out there to other attendees on the Podcast-A-Palooza app (yes, there was an app for that!): if you are being flirty with me and I don’t seem to get it, say something.
Maybe I need a t-shirt that says “If you are flirting with me, please let me know. (But don’t lie just to make me feel better.)” Or a Flirt Inspection! sign I can hold up during a conversation. When the sign is pulled, the conversation pauses and there is brief discussion between participants if any flirting was in fact going on.
….
Yeah, still working on this one.
Virtual Podcast-A-Palooza
Even though in-person Podcast-A-Palooza has been cancelled, there is a virtual Podcast-A-Palooza event from Friday, August 28, to Sunday, August 30. And yes, we are attending!
Podcast-A-Palooza was going to be our first lifestyle hotel takeover event. Now it’ll be our first virtual lifestyle event. I can’t fathom how it’s going to work, but hey, I’m up for trying new things! We still get to learn from some of our favorite podcasters and support an event to help see it through these tumultuous times.
If you are interested, you can find out more by following #PCAPVIRTUAL and @PodcastAPalooza on Twitter.
There’s even a couple’s yoga session! If you didn’t know, Erin and I have been (failing miserably at) keeping up a weekly yoga practice since COVID hit, so we’re pretty stoked about this!
Yes, we’ll (likely) be (mostly) sober for it. When I fall, it’s because I’m just awful at yoga.
I think this is the first of two virtual events, and the second one will be held on the original October dates. I don’t see any info about that on the website, so don’t take my word for it.
And Next Year?
I don’t know if the dates and location for Podcast-A-Palooza 2021 are set yet. You can sign up for the newsletter to stay up to date with the most current info. I had thought Erin said that it was going back to the original dates in May. That would once again conflict with her work, and therefore it would be a no-go for us, alas. (You can’t see it, but I shook my fist at the heavens for this scheduling conflict.)
Erin must be on the newsletter mailing list because she said there might be a second event in 2021, Podcast-A-Palooza West or something. We love California. If we could combine a weekend at Podcast-A-Palooza with a few days in Sonoma sipping wine, we’d definitely make the flight out west for that!
Assuming this COVID-19 pandemic thing has cleared up by then.