Giant Bombcast 07-09-2013

Hi, folks, you're you're listening to the bomb Cast. Today's Tuesday, and I'm Vinny Caravella, and uh some of you, most of you probably know already what's happened. Uh. We lost a dear friend and co worker last week. Ryan Davis passed away, uh and got Drew Scalon, Alexis, Jeff Matt Brad Alex on skype and Patrick on Skype. And we're all here too talk about our friend and co worker. Hey guys, Hey, hey, hi, hey, And I'm sorry to anyone driving out there. I probably should have practiced this with like, hey, head's up in case you haven't heard this, Yeah, I want to pull over news. You've got some bad news. Yeah, so so sorry, sorry about that. And start of the podcast with hey you got a minute? Yeah? Or are you home? Are you sitting down? They text me back. It's it's kind of important. So it's been quite a weak for all of us, and this podcast is probably gonna be a big, big old mess, but uh, this is the most you know, we had to wire up additional microphones in this room. Yeah, it's the Scott. Yeah, it's a mess already. Yeah, it's wires everywhere. Uh so So I've I got you guys here today. Uh, because pilot Wings is out on the virtual console. Oh fantastic, is actually true? We use virtual console. Pilot Wings seven ninety nine a landmark moment for the shop. Actually coming of age, that's right, none of you can stop me. Mighty Switch Forces on sale. A Nintendo Life dot com reporting on the line up here the deer Hunting King. Oh all these games are bad, all right? Pilot Wings though, pilot Wings just the first one, just the first one. Yeah, yeah, regular ass fucking pilot Wings. The original one still best. Yeah, it wasn't Pilotwing sixty four, that's for sure. So I met Ryan God uh last week. Last week I got invited to a wedding. It's so awkward, you know. He just I don't know. He said like, look, you know that's there's this dude who was supposed to be my wedding never showed up. Can you just put this on real quick? And I was like, all right, whatever, man, it's better than serving ice cream cake wedding. So no, it's you know, it was a fuck man, when was it? I mean he was I think he may have been used out of high school or or still kind of coming out. I was a you know, a handful of years older, and uh, you know, we'd kind of met online, uh, as well as kind of locally around the music scene and stuff like that up in Pedaluma, and uh, you know, I was in the middle of quitting a band and and very vindictively saying I'm gonna start another fucking band because fuck those guys. And uh, you know Ryan and he was friends with the guy named Ben at the time, and and and Ben had listened to enough rap music to be able to fake it pretty well. And Ryan knew how to use a computer pretty well and had fucked around and made some instrumental tracks and stuff, and and we kind of ended up just starting a group from there. What was it called the Suburban All Stars. I've heard of them. Yeah, And then you know Alex got in on that at some point as well. Uh you know, but uh yeah, I don't know. Then. You know, those two guys were working for AT and T in San Francisco when when I was working at game Spot, and it was uh, you know, we were it was still the first game Spot office on Clement Street. And you know, because I had known those dudes, and we were all. You know, they were taking the bus in from Sonoma County every fucking day at four in the morning or whatever. You have to do it when you take a bus. It smelled real bad. I don't know. I've never say that's what we have to do about problem. Smell real bad. That's yeah, get really mad when people take your seat, right, So sometimes they would, those guys would get off work and then just come hang out at the Game Spot office. Uh, and I would give him a ride home. So what year is this around? This would have been yeah, I mean games So I started ninety six, so this would have been Yeah, this would be ninety eight. Back then, Uh, we had a blitz machine in the office. That was pretty good. How many porkmons a week were you eating? One time I ate like a dozen pork buns and one sitting and then spent the rest of the day lying under my desk. There's a lot of there's a lot of street. Yeah, yeah, Clin Street is pork bun having them some all the way where between them we were okay, whatever block that burger king on Geary's on third third, we were up around the corner and the street smell like Georgio's horse. Yeah quarter, Yeah, here's the right. You hear the characters stopping around as we recorded videos of video games for no as it turns out, little boys by the gas lamps. Yeah, yeah, more or less. So, you know, at one point of Vince Brody, the founder, one of the founders of GameSpot, came to me and said, you're fucking friends, and you stop hanging out here all the time, like you just you know, because we had arcade machines at that point, they would just they would just sit around. They would show up earlier and earlier earlier, like got to point where they were showing up like three thirty or something and just like spending the rest of the day just fucking ensuring no other work got done. So we ended up hiring them both. That's usually how that works out. Yeah, exactly, you know, I think that that ended up. There was a little ways between there where we had we had moved offices. We got bought by a z If Davis and and moved over to another office, and you know, Ben came on to do previews and uh, and Ryan came on to do customer support, you know, like like he would do would he So he was still doing customer support. I guess. I guess that's around the time that I met you guys, right, yeah, that long would have you been in the Townsend building when, I don't know, probably not too long? Summer of two thousand. Yeah, uh, Brad was a newsy on the corner. Yeah. Yeah, I was after and paper for nickel apiece and U hey, kid, you guys, you guys took kitty on me. I really needed a hot meal. Oh and you've got a hot meal a lot more than that scorching. Yeah. Yeah, I guess that that all kind of came together around the same time. Yeah, what do you know about this Diablo game? Kid? Watch jeez shucks? Tell us about Japanese rpjas. So all right, and Brad, you were you were an intern at the time. Yeah, I was doing freelance for like a year before that. I came into the Joe Fielder and his then wife Lauren kind of got me intoing freelance, and then yeah, came off for the summer and then almost didn't leave, right. Yeah, I think there was there was that moment of just like we should not ruin people's lives by like getting them to not finish school for the best that was that would ended up working out really well for like me and Ryan of like, you just don't start it, then it's like not a problem. But yeah, I don't know that's that was, Yeah, there was. I think Joe Fielder instilled that in me. I was just like, let's not fucking destroy lives here by making sure that people don't finish college worked for this shambles ass video game industry. Yeah. Yeah, So you know, it's like with with those guys being up in the area, and you know, eventually, you know, eventually Ben was not in the picture anymore, and you know, yeah, me and Ryan spent a whole lot of time together and I remember going up to his place for the first time and he was in Santa Rosa and this fucked up real not a great place, but you know whatever, it was all right, And he was not twenty one yet, so I had to take care of some business on that end, and sat around playing to Shinden for the PlayStation or or one of the one of the sequels I think it may have been, and then beating the like we found a this was actually a really horrible thing we did. I think this is actually it's probably a bad but I want to say that this guy this we told this at some point, but there was we were driving to the supermarket because that's where the beer lives, and uh, there was a chair sitting out in front of the plate of a house that just had a fucking old ass computer. And it just a free computer. And it was like, you know, two eighty six. You know, it wasn't even two eighty six. It was like, I don't know, eighty eighty eight or something. It's just some fucked up old ass thing. So we went like, free computer, awesome, great, took it. Uh, you know, went about our business, got back to the house like okay, let's let's plug this thing and see if it works. Plugged it in. It beeped, but didn't immediately do anything, and I mean like immediately do anything. So then he grabbed his roommates baseball bat and just beat the ship out of it and just smashed up this computer with a bat. Now whatever, that's that's yeah, that's Santa Rosa right there. That's not Rosalind, that's Santa Rosa. You know, we ended up maybe urinating on a computer, okay, spilling some beers on a computers. Hosing down a computer, okay, and then maybe we ended up putting said computer in the back of his car, driving it to where we got it, and throwing it out over a free computer sign. Yea, now the chair was gone like that must have been so psyched, like this computer is. It's gone. That's great. Hopefully someone gets some use out of our free computer. We're such good people. Oh god, back, you did get some use out of it. We did get more use. I mean whatever, it didn't Like I said, it beaped, but it didn't seem to actually do anything. Those were the early Yeah, not posts gets smashed, that's Them's the fucking rules. Those were also I think the early days of your and Ryan's love affair with taking things out to yards and destroying them, because I feel like he was a big proponent of the wanton destruction that kind of went on later on when you were living at the compound. Yeah that was years later, but yeah, absolutely that that was the start of it for sure. That ended up with like me and him and this guy Dave Teyster who used to work here a game spot for a while, uh, driving around with a TV to looking for a quiet place to shoot it. I don't know if you were successful or not. In the it ended up being in the middle of the street near Ryan's mom's house. You've never shot a TV? One of the shames of CRTs kind of phasing. Yeah, exactly, like modern TVs are not fun to break. When that when I broke that fucking flat screen, no joy, No, there was well, there was no joy originally, but then when I turned it on and then immediately like like took the remote control that was in my hand and just angrily started bashing the screen and cracking the screen more and more. It became like a cool art project. I did not urinate on that TV yet, I still has so. Yeah. Yeah, once you know, once you smash up a computer with a man, you know a thing or two about him, and uh yeah, we were tied ever since. I'd say, uh so, Brad, you you you met him when you were doing Freelance Worker, when you interned. Uh no, it was when I came out, okay, finally saw the true depths of the darkness that lived it game. Oh yeah, everyone was just like this happy go lucky video game website like this, because this site is powered by malt fucking liquor, you animals, because I mean there were people like there were respectable people like Gregosovan working there at the time, but they were they were on the PCs. Say, for some reason, they elected to sit me in the little cube quadrant with you guys, with you and Ben and Ryan, Well you were covering console game before the sides were merged, doing console stuff and yeah, but speaking of getting no work done, like I was spending most of my time rolling around dying of laughter because you guys were just probably the funniest people that I had ever hung out with to that day, and since it was so magical summer. Were you an intern for a lot of reasons? Yeah? Yeah, Did you get hazed? Did Ryan hate you immediately? No? No, But but but when I was rolling around in my head what I would talk about on this podcast, Ryan hitting me story definitely was one of the first that came to mind. Uh Wow, when was that? It might have been the year that I moved out here for good, which was two thousand and three. Uh, it might have been the year after that. I think it was probably that year. It was his birthday and we went to some bar in the mission. I wish I could remember which one it was. At this point, he had already moved down to he was he was living in the Richmond at that point, and he was fucking shit housed when I got there. Wait a minute, what I mean, I mean like like approaching blackout drunk, just you know, people have been people shot all night, dast and h This is just this, you know, this is illustrative of his exuberance and his zest for stuff. Is that I walk in the bar and I was wearing glasses that day and or that night, and he was so excited to see me that he just like open handed just smacked me across the face as hard as he could as a as a mad matter of greeting, and it sent my glasses flying behind the bar, and thank god the bartender saw it and then stuff on them and retrieved them for me. But then like he just kind of went on his merry way. But then the next day he actually called me like hung over it like clearly just in a horrible state, uh, and apologized like he felt horrible about it, Like he you know, as much of an air as he could put on of just being a jerk to everybody. He like he definitely had a soft, soft inner inner core. It's a pretty soft tan too. When it's when he slash, it was kind of it was a sort of lady like supple sure of a man who had spent a lot, played a lot of video games in his time. And and big bear paws. Yeah. Yeah, he clocked me across the face so hard at his wedding while we were dancing like it was it was probably like right after he had given me that big kiss that like that we put that photo I tweeted, and at some point he just clocked and he caught me in the temple and I almost went down, and I was and I was just seeing stars and I was just and I couldn't hate him. I just I couldn't hate him. I was just like, oh, see that the slapping came and went really like that. That's I'm surprised. That's a really early example slapping a motherfucker. But it was it seemed like it was him and Dave. When when he hit Dave, oh yeah, like they were they went back and forth. Wow, and then Dave hit me. It was like they had some slappy thing going on. Yeah, like they they had there was a whole thing when when Dave came to town after they bought his sight and brought him into this amazing family of websites where uh yeah, they were hanging out all the time. I think, Rory, that's probably like right around Yeah, I came in right after. I think like a month after Dave was hired. I believe I was. I was incept. I've been freelancing for a while. I never knew Ryan before we moved out, but I I've moved out in September of four, right before the infamous two thousand four holiday party. Yeah, the one fluid Yes that wait, oh yeah, that was a fluid. Sure, I think fluid was oh six, I'm pretty sure cause I was the last big one. Uh you mean the last one was the day or the week after the Japanese PSP launch, because I had just gotten off a plane and went to that party and said, oh, I'm not gonna really have much to drink because you know, it's like I'm so yep fucking tired. And then I was like, well, maybe I'll have a red Bull in vodka. And then I believe that was the year, Alex that I spent throwing up out of your window all the way Bridge right, Yes, that was the So that was I think that was the the Sake Lab holiday party, which was equally infamous for different reasons. Yeah. Uh, we had a lot of infamous party that's yeah. They that would they eventually they stopped letting Game Spot have their own separate holiday parties. Uh, with cause, with cause, yeah, and I actually I want to say that maybe at some point they were like, there's no money in this internet thing anymore, so you need to I think it was right around the time that the Big Company holiday party went from like being at city Hall to being inside the building when it was a city Hall. I remember I didn't go because I don't. I don't. I don't know why I don't go to holiday parties. I kind of never have. It's weird. Uh, that's weird. I don't know now that I'm now that I say that's maybe a little strange. But they had it at city Hall, and I remember hearing that like Ryan and Trevor Rivers had like just said, fuck it, We're going to sneak around city Hall. And I heard stories like they jumped the ropes basically, yeah, yeah, yeah, they were trying to keep people in this one area to be safe. And then I believe that they just said fuck it. Trevor's lady. I remember being pretty angry. I think they got like all the way to the top of the building, if I remember, Yeah, like they got all the way to the top floor or something. Yeah, that was that was really the beginning of like what I think of this sort of like the golden era of Game Spot, Brown Areas, city Hall it is. Yeah, well that was before I got here. That was like that was like dot Com bubbled, like you gotta be in a bubble to be able to rent City Hall out for your holiday party. Yeah, uh yeah when you came in and Dave and then there were all these other people that we clicked with really well, Harry and Bob and yeah, just like and oh yeah sure and then but the main thing is that that that was when we started closing down steps like three nights a week. Yeah. Uh. Nina was always there. I was the only time I've ever I've never been kicked out of the only time I ever got cut off int of arms. And Ryan was like at the center of that, like he was one of the anchors of that horrible lifestyle. That was when he taught me how to drink whiskey properly. Yeah, you see, that was the you know, the gift and the curse of of living with the suburbs is that, you know, like he and I never had a slapping relationship, right, and I don't know how to drink. Yeah, it was. It was a fun time. It was horribly ruinous to your health, but it was. I think that was the time when I was living up in the middle of nowhere and really getting into breaking stuff, like yeah, like professionally breaking ships of the bike. Yeah, that was the guard bike. There's a picture that the Chris, a friend of ours, posted of Ryan uderstanding menacingly. We had this t ball bat, this metal t ball back that we used to break stuff because of course you can't use it, he can't use it a wooden bat. No, no, we used after we used a wooden bat to break up that computer and it was his roommates. It was fucking that bad up. It's super fucking unhappy with us. You know, I get it, And that makes perfect sense. It's like that you shouldn't do that metal that sound better too, Oh yeah, totally. Yeah. And so this this bat had just been compressed and just you know, so dented from just imagine like something straight out of of like a fucking awful bashing people in the head game. I haven't hanging in my garage right now. I bought another one that is pristine and has not been used, so I have like a before and ho after with these bats. And we had the guard bike. We had a broken ass bike that we found on the property or you know, out on the It was out in the gutter or something out on the main road. We said, well, this looks broken, we should probably bring it in here and then beat it with his bat for a while. I saw that picture making the rounds yesterday. He's got sunglasses on and it's just mecing me standing over this bike after having done his dark business. Yeah. No, that that's yeah, that's that is. That is one of my favorite pictures of Ryan. He's I mean, that's I I think I said it yesterday, but that is the most photogenic motherfucker I've ever known, holy shit, ever since. Yeah, very expressive. This ever since the fucking day I met him, just seemingly cannot take a bad picture. It's like, what the how do the fuck does this happen? You ask whole what a dick. All my pictures are terrible. I have like two in my entire life. That Yeah, that one's looking all right, what's this angle? I gotta figure this out? Sure? And when he took a bad picture, he was on purpose, right, it was that. Yeah, it was that creepy and just oh god, how does he do that? How does he control his eyes double jointed in his eyeballs? Oh god, we were looking at those those videos those yesterday. There was that one thirty second thing. It was just there's I was trying to write up something and uh still am I Maybe I'll put it up later, but uh I mentioned it there my idea of Ryan when I really try to boil down Ryan Davis as an essence just kind of like fully formed out of like a budvillion trunk, just like popped out and it's just read it entertained. Yeah, just like you know, hello and just you know, spawned out of the ether, like the coalescing of like entertainment and like let's go show bid. Yeah. Ory and I were at at a bar last night kind of drowned sorrows with some of the idle films guys, And what was the question you were like, if if if Ryan were an old man, what would he be doing? Ye would he it was it was lived to be eighty, What would he be doing? My response was circus ring master, I said, a train conductor. I think that just like big old guy biggel cap and big old mustache, big old gray must like toy t he'd work at the same town. Really kind of good with kids, always made a little weird. I don't know about this guy, but well he runs the train place, and my kid wants fucking trains. You want to go fast, We're gonna go on the trains, he said. I think he would be the kind of person that would be referred to in the neighborhood as local weirdo, like just just the strange old man who was just cantankerous, but also like like you said, like ran fucking train town or fucking ran a candy Yeah, sold fireworks. You just see like it's like I don't know, he was out and he was just wearing a towel. I don't know. But then then maybe your baseball made it into his yard. You know, you're weird. You go up and you're shine, you knock, and then he'd by doing for a bourbon. Talk to you for a bit, we tell you about life, kid. Do you want to watch Roger Rabbit on your disc? That code he was wearing a robe. It was weird that man wore a rowe. He knew how to lounge for sure. Yeah. He was a man of leisure. Absolutely. It always it seemed like he was last like living life and just being amused by it. Like he just kind of life was happening and it was there to entertain him. And sometimes it would be things that he had set up and now he is just can kind of sit back. And that was like the E three shows a lot of that stuff, Like he booked all the guests for that because I'm terrible with people and and he just you know, he was able to just bring all those people together and just you know, watch chaos on exactly just kind of you know, no, when to kind of sit back and just let these things happen. And that was That's a really hard thing to know when to do, like in an on camera role or whatever, just like okay, you know when when when to put the focus back on you, when to very deliberately step out. I think that's I think that's why I liked getting involved and booking some of that stuff with him the last couple of years because then I started deliberately booking people that I thought would just kind of throw him off his game but would be interesting anyway. And then he also found good ways to pair that, like the Genova Chen dan Reichert combination by far one of my favorite things that I've coordinated with him, because it both didn't work and completely worked at the same time. And there are there was no one else in the world that could have handled that with the deaf touch that Ryan did, because he somehow managed to you know, not completely crack up at machine gun lists as a term, and also allowed Jenova Chen to tell horrible dating stories while dan Reichert made fun of people that went on dates. Yeah. Natural common ground, Yeah, that's yeah, that's been you know, seeing the you know, a lot of people have had a lot to say over the past day or so here, and that's he was really great at just providing that common ground for people and really and really bringing people together. I mean that it's funny because when we started the site, like that was one of the things, you know, maybe not bringing people together, but it was it was very much like, you know, we want to get people to make games and people that want to talk about games and have interesting stories and kind of let that stuff happen. And I think he really found that and and and was able to actually make that happen, whereas I just said it a bunch and that was about it. Uh yeah, it was really good with that ship. If anywhere did you come into the picture, I came in. I started two thousand six. Yeah uh so, yeah, right on the downslide, the first place through the door that we were like us fun, we should get out of here. Yeah. Six was the year that everybody started leaving. Six was that was the you know what it was? That last E three E three oh six or e thro five was the I really it was the last big last year he was here. Three he left at the end of six. Yeah, oh yeah, like the beginning of seven is when he was six his last three. I felt like that was when Bob went the Blizzard and carry took off and then then Vince left. I was, yeah, yeah, it was. It was when I came in. I felt like I came in, Well, I've been a fan of the site, so I kind of knew about you guys, watched on the Spot a lot, and uh, I think it felt like when I came in everything was super good and then immediately, like within months, I started turning bad. Yeah, but uh man, I got to work with Rich immediately, which was really fun, and uh, I think Matt, the first thing I did was that I was later on, No, was that that reading rainbow thing? Yeah? Was it? Hey, kids, you like good art, kids, you like cool art. Don't even remember the line? I had just been so long. It was Rich gall up with that script, I think right he I went to go film that event for I Am a Pit and then like the tape got eaten up back when you se use tapes and that was my first gig, and like I was like, oh my god. You know mister gallis like the tape done got eaten and like he was like, I don't are you probably sucked anyway. I've got an idea. I've got this red velvet. Uh And then yeah, I was like here do this and I was like okay, and that kind of set the tone for what quickly happened. But the the thing I remember most early on was that it was because that must have been that must have been I think around May, because it was like immediately E three and then immediately after that was the E three swag giveaway, which was Jeff, you and Ryan didn't carry, uh did? And I think that was the first time I realized what I was dealing with in terms of talent. Like it was basically you like carry set it up and tossed it over to you guys, and the premise was you know QPC or you know kind of shopping channel shopping, remember, and then it was basically I think there was like an hour of footage. Everything was just laid out on a table. Yeah, and then you and ryans just picking up shit and talking about it for like an hour. That would be blow stupid. I remember it so so it's not even QVC. It's just straight up night cutlery cornering tom Odell and Todd Boone, Right, did that voice for so long? I have a woman you could barely talk for like a day after. Yeah, Like I was fucking yelling that whole time as it just we just went through all that stuff. That's what the third floor was like back then. Though. You'd walk around and you'd hear like people just fucking it's like sometimes being around quick looks when you guys are just like hear from like across the floor, like just somebody screaming their head off. That's the weird thing about that time, is you know, it really was. It was starting to become two game spots in a lot of ways. There was very much like the side. There was the portion of us that we're very much like, dude, fuck this, let's do this weird on camera shit. And then there were people that were like, this is this is not what this website you know, like like very adamantly would have been against some of the exactly. Yes, some people would staff up for their all their stories, old the old guard, the old play. Everybody's like yeah, but like I'm I'm that. I mean, I mean I wasn't there, but i mean all the people, i mean, philosophically sure they were. They were doing it the way that everybody had always done it. Like nobody, nobody raised their voices on a video game site before that. Yeah, it was. It was hard to even convince people that starting a podcast was a good idea. I mean, Bob was doing the hot Spot as a text feature. That was like this weird side thing of like, here's seven trends this week. It was just like the dumbest fucking thing. But you know, like it just looked like an entertainment weekly sidebar blown up into a full page. Uh no offense, Bob, No, no, what I mean whatever, he's you know, he was doing it, yeah, exactly, And in the environment he was wor working in, he did what he could. And and then we ended up kind of just piggybacking the podcast onto that thing, and just like what if we talked about these seven things, it's kind of just some point just start doing it without telling anyone. And and that was how, I mean, whatever, That's how Boss of Boss has happened. That's how that's a rich Gallup was on vacation, I think, and so no, Andrew Park was on vacation, I think yeah, and uh and just kind of we we slipped one another radar, so I think someone had already said like, no way, you're doing that, and we just kind of went in Vinny, Holy shit, that was like what at eighty hours. I don't even remember how well, because it was right on the transition. Maybe it's just too much technical stuff, but it was right on that transition. From h S HD, right, So they wanted to do it in HD, but there were like two HD machines in the entire on the entire floor which was also being used for that boom deal at the time that was a ship show when we had to like balance the use of that stuff, and so like I had to sneak on to do stuff in HD when other people weren't doing stuff there was for the boom contract and like just trying to record that stuff in the office, which is actually fun, uh but it was. And then and then they came back, it was like you took it a whole week to do it. It was like eighty hours to cut that thing together. And then we come back and they were like, okay, we do four days a month. It's like, yeah, we want to show because you also needed to because in between all the bits was you actually beating the doing the strategy, which also took time right right in that studio, were sitting there just for just for hours. It's kind of like spitballing random stupid stuff. It was still still alive somewhere in the bowels of Game Spot. But yeah, I mean that that So they ended up being this case of like there was obviously there was one side that was way more interesting and exciting, and then there was one side that like we were rapidly becoming disenfranchised with. And then and uh, you know, this was around the time that you know, we started doing like time Trotters and stuff like that, where Rich was just like, let's just make a cartoon. But like, all right, so I don't I don't know if we ever asked or if we just started doing it. Uh, but you know Rich, which Rich did most of the writing at that point. I think we may have looked over some of that stuff, but but yeah, you know, we we put all that together, and then Ryan and I became the stars of this fucking cartoon that Ben Kuello animated or did the drawing for and then eventually animated and that stuff that was actually the same the same type deal as we did one of them it was like live action, and then one of them that was a cartoon. And then, you know, by that point, so much time had passed. I think, you know, Greg was already gone at that point, and they're like, well, you know, if we could do like twelve of them and gang produce them and do all this stuff, then we could do it otherwise. You know, it's like basically like stop me if you've heard this before. But someone came in and set unrealistic goals as a way to make something face and uh yeah, yeah, So we ended up you know, like getting through. We ended up putting up like that lost episode not too long ago that's on though both those are on Giant Bomb now. The time Trunter's HQ sticker, somebody tried to peel it off, but it was still still closet whatever is that storage room and there. Yeah, yeah, and that was just I don't know, that was that was so cool, like me and Ryan and cartoon Form and you know, just kind of going for it, and it was just, you know, it was something that like, you know, no game site would do that because you know, they because it was fucking crazy, Like you shouldn't do that if you're running a video game site. But like that, that was the stuff that was entertaining. And I think like once we had started down that road with on the Spot and then Rich left and on the Spot kind of became you know, and carry was gone at that point too, and and uh, you know it's primarily I guess me and Ryan, right, Ryan, Ryan became standing set guy. Yeah, yeah, I was. I was sitting set guy. He was standing set guy, and and yeah, and it was weird because I don't know if he loved standing or not. I don't know. It wasn't his favorite. I don't know standings all right, I'm kind of into it sometimes, but yeah, and you know, I think, you know, as as time went on and it's you know, I think Alex as the other kind of anchor for the reviews team, would say at some point we were all kind of fucking done. I remember having conversations in the car with Alex along like seven along the lines of I don't think I could do this anymore man, and me going, I don't just but who will I commute with? It got weird. Ryan was still in the city at the point. Yeah, he was still living in San Francisco. Yeah, it got It got weird for me when it went from like doing the on the spot stuff and then it had to be time breaks and stuff. Right when that stuff started happening and was like, Okay, we're gonna try and be TV, and like we're gonna keep each chegment down to like five minutes, and like the runtime stuff. Yeah, Like it ended up being like the real tragedy of like there was finally enough attention being paid to video that we kind of could have done a lot of really cool stuff. But the goal, like they were chasing after this television goal of like, well, on the Spot needs to be twenty two a broadcast hour, like forty eight minutes whatever whatever, it was forty four and yeah, it just sucked all the air out of that show. Like the whole point of it was that, like, you know, these segments should be as long as they need to be because all games are different, because all things are different, and it's the Internet, so it's the Internet. Yeah. But at the time, you know, at the time, I still you know, like I you know, we had done some television at that point, like I had I co hosted Attack of the Show for a week and then me Ryan, Greg, Ryan McDonald, Ray McDonald and he was there, but I don't think he wasn't actually on the show. Bethany and Carrie went down and shot a week of a show called Cinema Tech that G four did, and this was like a really weird like they came to us saying like, hey, we want to do like a partner thing, you know, were you kind of put together a week of shows and the show was primarily just clips, so I think they were expecting us to just come back with like, here's a list of games, go ahead, and like come up with a theme. But it when instead we wrote a bunch of on camera segments and I was like, fuck it, we're gonna be a TV fuck this. So Ryan and I ended up writing I think three of those. There's five episodes. Carrie and Bethany wrote one, I think Greg wrote one, and I think we wrote the rest, which meant that the rest did not get done until the day before shooting started. Or you know that this we we had had overwritten them. We wrote a bunch of stuff and then I think they came back and said this is way too much and this is this is all too long. So it was like the night before the shoot, like in this hotel room in Santa Monica, just frantically, frantically, the two of us just trying to cut these scripts down. One day. Yeah, yeah, we shot everything because we just had to shoot like the host like wrap arounds and stuff. There's a great shot I should find it of like Ryan in like uh, beat up, like like bruised face, makeup, like he had had the shit beat out of him. I forget what the actual joke was now. The only episode of that I have now is the one that that Carry and Bethany did. I can't find. I don't know where the rest of him went. But yeah, like we wrote a bunch of dumb infomercial shit, Like you know, it was kind of like classic us, like the two of us faced with like writing this thing. I was like, all right, well, we're just going to like do a bunch of dumb kind of pseudo TV stuff and and that was awesome. That was actually we that was my thirtieth birthday. We were down in La shooting some of that stuff. I will say that trying to do the on the spot stuff in that really regimented, segmented way, it was a really good learning experience in terms of like what does work and what doesn't work, and like trying to cram something into a format that should never be crammed into it and really kind of informed. I think a lot of how we went forward doing stuff when we were given free rein Yeah exactly, I mean that's you know, that's the funny thing, because you know, there was some segment of people that were very much like, oh fuck game Spot as soon as we started Giant Bomb, and I get it. But at the same time, like all we really did is take the stuff we did at game Spot and say, no one is going to tell us what to do with this ever again, or nobody was someone could have tried. Very fortunate thing that those guys were not telling us. That ended up being like the I think the big early test for us was that fucking Too Human video. We did that, and everyone Shelby, every like everybody upstairs, the whole like the Whiskey Media LLC people were gone because they spent summers on Shelby's ranch or you know, coding or whatever it is. They did, plug have toilets with Koon's and and left us to our own device. And you guys, yeah we were all there. You know, we were there. Yeah, this was before Drew right, Yeah, it's just the four of us in that basement and like that Too Human stuff happened. I remember just coming in and going like we should we should do this, Like that was it was such a that day felt like the most amazing proof concept of like shit's going on out there, come in, have an idea, like, conceive it, execute it, posted like in the space of like three hours, and it was just like just this fucked up thing that was barely about game. I remember like putting that up and going like we may get a call from these guys saying like the deals off, you guys need to pack up. And I know I'm probably misremembering this, and because my memory is terrible, but when I think back to it, it is all of us hovering around my computer. Yeah yeah, and my finger over the well, my mouth and finger over the like right published button should be posted? Or do we do this? It's like there was already conversations about like we should bleep all this right, Like it was full of swearing. You were threatening multiple I like like ice cube music in there, and then definitely being like what should we do it? And you're like, d do it just like click and then just laying like all right, and then just waiting waiting for back to me, like yeah, what the fuck are you guys doing down there? Don't don't don't come back to the office. Oh man. He he did such a great job of playing a hype man, and that thing just the like without a word, just like shaking his head when you were talking shit about people and doing the hand signals and stuff like, I you were cracket. Thank god I had that shirt wrapped around my face, like I thought it was a funny sight gag or whatever. But but yeah, I also served the purpose of hiding my laughter because I was just dying the whole time. Yeah. Uh, that was a great video. That was fun. Yeah that you know he was you know, that was uh. He was good at playing parts. Yeah, and was jumping in one of those like points of confidence that you know, neither of us, I mean whatever, there's enough old video of all of us out there that I think you can look at that and go like, it wasn't It wasn't always the way it is now. I don't know what you're talking about except for me, but you know, like it was one of those things I think on the spot, and especially the way everything broke every week, what are you talking about before you came on? Man, it showed up, and it turns out that's why they brought you in. No, it was like, you know, every week there'd be a tape segment that didn't play. Every week they'd be like you hit play on something it was something else, and you know, so it was just like Frank or somebody's going like you need to stretch. It's just not ready yet, and let's check out from the field and then camera just sits on you for another one minute, right, yeah, And you know like that's something that you know, I think Rich got, being that he was the main host, got good at it before either of us did. But you got to that point where you just you needed to be able to know, like you need to have something at a fucking moment's notice, like they're gonna come to you and you need to be ready to start talking. It doesn't matter about what, but you can't have dead fucking air. Just be ready to go. And uh, you know Ryan picked that up super well, you know, and and it was I'm and whatever, you know, like we don't we are poor planners. Uh. You know that very much of this website has been run on the notion of point the camera at this thing and we'll we'll figure it out. And I think that's worked. Yeah, it's worked, because you know it's like you know, Ryan, I think all of us now are are are up for for that sort of thing. On that end of the camera, and then there's the trust with you guys, and you kind of know where we're going and we kind of know what you're looking for. And I think it works out really well on that I was telling Alexis before, I was kind of trying to describe that that kind of same sentiment and kind of watching you and Ryan work together, you know, it's kind of like watching you know, it's gonna sounds weird, but it's like watching two pros just go at it, right, kind of like two old hands, just kind of like uh like almost like a tramp eeze act, right. You guys know you're timing, you know, you know when somebody's gonna be in the air, went to catch and when they bounce it back, throw it back. And I feel like, Brad, you can probably relate to this too, like stumbling into that and being like, you know, coming on the podcast and like I don't I don't know how to do this, Like I don't know when to jump or when to go. But I feel like every time I fell, it was you know, Ryan was there to grab you and he'd make sure the show didn't end. It was gonna be funny, don't way this big sweaty tattooed arm would would pull you up and be like, I'm not gonna let this not be funny. Like it's if it's not funny, I'm gonna call it out and then it'll be funny. Uh. And that's what, you know, for me personally allowed me to really just keep going. It was just like the confidence that like, you can sit in this room, don't worry about it, Like you're sitting with these two pros, They're not gonna fuck it up. Like if you fuck it up, I'll call you out on it. It's still gonna be funny. And then just kind of sitting back and trying to learn as much as I could. Really, I mean, it's a it's been an amazing experience. Like he he's just he's masterful. His craft was was I mean really, I'm joking, I'm serious. No, he was one of the best I've ever seen it doing that kind of so sharp, so fast. Was was he could like a raisablade. Yeah, And it's just it really was like h like I said before, he was a showman, right, so he just he loved a good show, and it was it was really funny to sit and watch somebody just enjoy that crap. Like watching him prep for we were talked a little bit about this, Jeff, watching him prep for Pax Panels or or kind of like any big show is when he'd kind of get nervous, you know, he's kind of he wanted a good show. Yeah, and that's the that's natural, I think, because like those Pax panels or like Dave's wedding, those are things you don't get back, you know, those are things that like but you know, a quick look or or whatever, or a live show here, we'll do another one of those. You know, it's not the end all be all, but there was that was yeah, very much. The only times I ever saw him nervous was was when we knew, right he was super nervous to Dave's wedding was yeah, and his own, well, everybody's nervous their own wedding. But you know, I think the nerves were coming from the same place they were at Dave's wedding. Were very much like, I just don't want to suck this up. And I was just like, you know, because at some point, I you know, we were up in the like sweltering hot grooms, sweet or whatever you wanna call it, and and he was just like I just need you guys to get me down that aisle and and everything will be and and and I'm just like, dude, it's like you've been with this girl for like a decade. And he's like, no, not even the like whatever, No, we'll get married, Like yes, obviously we'll get married, Like like, just I don't want to get down there. And then you know, like fuck up his vows. You know, it's like stuff, stuff that you don't get back, right like that. Those were the things that that was like the fucking horrible sports and but I was like, you it was like game day. He was like, all right, this is this is what it actually fucking matters. Like you know, you bring it most of the way on a weekend, week out basis, but there's this stuff that you know you're not going to get back. And you know, the E three shows and stuff like that. That's why you know, it's like the when that ship got stolen. H that was a Ryan that I rarely saw, was the like sitting outside and just staring out off going and I hadn't seen it in about a year, Like when the venue from Last year was a train wreck. I remember we went to that pizza place and he was just like it was his birthday and he's just sitting there it's going. I was like, you know, like me, I was like, whatever, it can't be that bad, Like, well, we'll make it. We'll make it work. Like I I've always trusted all of us to be able to be able to make it work. Yeah. And and the yeah, the trust. The trust has been huge for me. And it's really it's really I think allowed a lot of us to do what we do, especially from Ryan, like just really just knowing that it just felt always felt more comfortable when he was on set. When he's around that it's just you know, he's gonna be there to make sure that like he's gonna be the one to clap his hands be like we're done. That's it, We're done. It shows over and be like yeah, that you're right, it should be over. Uh, or just you know, kind of like she said, make you feel like a really funny guy. Like the ship I was thrown up was not that funny, but you know I just kept feeding it to Ryan to see what he would say. Uh, and uh, you know, let him roll with it and he just the body of knowledge. It was just weird. It's uncanny, like the references that he would be able to pull out. Yeah, I mean he stayed current. I didn't. At some point I stopped watching movies and television shows and stuff, and it's you know, yeah, exactly reading all that he's not actually watching it. Uh, so, Drew, when you you walked in, I was gonna hear a perspective folding up T shirts with our faces on them. Yeah, I mean, it's it was. It was real tough for me to uh to break into what was very obviously a very close knit group of guys, But I mean Ryan made that so much easier because he's just so good at making you feel welcome, and you know that any any idea you want to try will probably work, especially if it's with Ryan, because he's just so good at off the cuff stuff that you can just say like, I'm thinking kind of like this, and then he'll totally get it and roll with it and make a make a good, good piece of content out of it. I can't think of too many times you just flat out and said no, no, And I feel like that does come back down to hopefully we didn't pitch too much stuff that was that dumb. I mean, it does come back to that trust thing. But usually it was like, Hey, Ryan, I need you to kind of stand on your head and make this face. Okay, don't worry about it's gonna be awesome, but just where this tiny sombrero, just put it on your head. It's good, okay. And the thing I was going to say about what you said about him always being ready to put on a show or whatever is that he was the only guy here, like no offense to any of you other guys, but he was the one guy that I could always count on one hundred percent of the time to write shotgun on like a quick look or something if I needed him to, like said, hey, you want to be on this quick look with me, just like at immediate yes, like yeah, and to be jazzed like at it right. It was like it was like it was like it was kind of like a gift of gab kind of thing of just like he was always ready to be entertaining about whatever it was in front of him, even if he didn't personally care about it, Like he's still put all his effort into talking and entertaining like, you know, he didn't have that fear, you know, hardly mocking it of being right right, whereas I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I still every day worry about you know, it's like I'm not being interesting enough or not crack enough jokes or whatever. He would just throw himself into that stuff with reservation every time. His thing, his thing always was just put it out there, doesn't matter, you know, like what it is, you know, it doesn't matter if you know that much about this game, like just you know, get the gist of it and just just talk, just have a conversation, you know, just just put as much out there as you can, even if the bits don't work, just try it. And that was something that I was always very nervous about, Like I've never been comfortable just kind of like putting anything out there, just trying anything and just seeing if it works. Is I'm always like kind of you know, afraid of like, well, if this isn't hit, it's gonna suck. He doesn't have he never had that fear. He never had that fear of this is gonna suck. It was always just like, well, whatever, if it sucks, will do something else. And that's you know that someone who is super dedicated and super good at just making that work is a rare thing, and he'd commit to it. Yeah, like that you really like that's I still I constantly pull back on a lot on a lot of stuff, Like there's always that internal struggle of just like is this going to be the thing that goes too far? Like yes, no, yes, no. And I overthink a lot of stuff throughout throughout my entire life. And he got to a point where he was just across it and he was just even if he wasn't actually comfortable, you would never know. Yeah, and that's you know, yeah, he'll lick the side of someone's face, you know, like just drink yeah, exactly, Like yes, yeah, he will just drink breast milk. Yeah, you know. Yeah. I don't know what I would have done. I don't know. I may have done that, Sure that would have been worth it. Again, but show he was way faster on it. It was. It was way more willing to just immediately just say, Yep, this is gonna be the thing that is the dumbest what's the what's the dumbest possible thing we could be doing at any given moment. You know. Part of it's the reason why I think, you know, I never strangled the dude because he was he was, he was ready to go. I knew when the cameras were on and I hit the live button, he was ready to go. Like getting him there might be tough, yeah, uh, you know, or crawling him or whatever, but like he could get away with it. And like I really do think he was. He was you know, I filmed a lot of people. Uh it's in the video game industry, and I really think he was some of the best at what what people are doing for what for what we were going for, he nailed it, and uh and yeah, it's it's a reason I was able to work with him, and the reason why, yeah, never really came to blows because like it really was like once you sat him down, put that mic on, he didn't even know what was happening. What are we doing? Yeah, uh, hey, we're gonna talk about whatever. Okay, okay, three, here's the guy you've never met or talked to it before. Make interesting content with them. Yeah, those packs ten interviews. But Pat Patrick, go ahead, Yeah, I was gonna say, I think one of my favorite moments with him with that was I'd played Hotline in Miami and I knew, like five minutes do it. I was like, this is It's like someone made a love letter to Ryan in a video game and I walked over to him. It was just said, I don't want to tell you anything about this game. Just go sit in the room. It'll all be fine. And if you watch the beginning of that quick look just the way he melts and just like enjoyed that experience like it's it was. It was magical to do that with him because, like Brad said, like you could, like especially when you knew something that was going to speak to his taste, like the way he would respond to that stuff was just unlike anything else. Yeah. Yeah. On the other side, I mean the other side of that too, was that he was incredibly good about getting people to love the things that he loved. Like that dude could turn an audience to anything with his enthusiasm for it, like it it doesn't matter how dumb, how weird, how fucking out there. It was like as soon as he gave something like the this is awesome, like thumbs up, you know you you kind of bought into it, even if you didn't think you would. Initially, it ended up being frustrating. You know, he hadn't really done a lot of writing over the last couple of years. And you know, we talked about it, and he was just like, you know, because you know, game Spot like whatever, it was a review factory. It was just like, this was your whole job, you know, this show up, played the game, get the game review out. How many anime games he reviewed? Yeah, exactly. He was anim was the secret ani anime editor. But you know, like he was, you know, once he had kind of fallen out of the habit, once we had we had gotten away from that, it was very hard for him to kind of turn it back on. And it always, it always really bummed me out because I always felt that he was a much more persuasive and just overall better writer than I than I am. He was a terrific writer. I mean early on when I was kind of learning how to do this at all, you know, because I mean when you guys hired me, I was twenty one. You know, I had never really written anywhere professionally. And you when you came into you came into tech support positions first, right, Yeah, Well, I started as an intern on game rankings for like two weeks. And then that was while I was interviewing for the assistant editor job, which was half you know, just do whatever dumb reviews Jeff has left over and also half just do technical sport. So that was me taking over for Ryan on that right. But when I was learning how to do it, you know, I had no real training or understanding of like how to write a good review. He didn't take the video game writers track at Northwestern anyone else did. Everything I knew was from Glenn Rubinstein, just making my shit readable when back when I was freelancing for him. So so so when I was looking for, you know, people to kind of learn from, I usually sort of defaulted to him because the stuff he wrote always sounded really natural and conversational, like he was actually talking to a person and not just you know, running down a list of features, which is what a lot of game reviews were at that point. And yeah, and I was, you know, I was stiff for a long time. But once I kind of started to understand that conversational tone and actually learned to you know, kind of sort of talk to talk to the audience like they were you know, people, and like they were having a real experience like that that that I got that from him. Absolutely, Yeah, that's you really knew how to turn a phrase in his reviews, Yeah, exactly. That a few things that would be like that was the That was the main one of the big reasons I was bumed he didn't do more of them. Yeah, was like I looked at his his pac Man ceed X review yesterday, pac Man fever has been effectively weaponized. Yeah. It was like the tagline for that review, It's like what else can you say? Yeah, It's like that made you guys like a really powerful duo. I felt, because like Ryan had that flourish and you're the best technical like writer and copy editor out of all of us by a long shot. At the grammar spout robot, Yeah you can. You can fix the parts that are fucking stupid, right, that needs a hyphen There are plenty, Alex use more hyphens. I'm working on Alex makes tops offs better compound nouns. Working on that anymore. Yeah, but yeah, like it was it was really fun to go through his reviews and and look at the just the flamboyance that was there and some of that stuff. I remember there being Something Great in his Child of Eden review, But I can't figure out how to get to the review on this fucking website. Alexis hit hit reviews. I hit reviews, and it just takes me to use the reviews. I don't get it the reviews on the actual page. Do I need to go to child whatever first? And then yeah, we'll figure that out later. You've got a real bad usability case here if we file this one. Get to take care of the phone experience? Does the the something drop down tabs still pop under the over the videos on iPad? Really? We're doing this now? Oh man, that's it. It was the deck on it. Child of Eden? His music, Gucci's Most Fully Real Lies light Speed Byoluminescent Cyberspace Technosynthetic neon Air Sculpture. That's pretty dumb that it's also a video game, seems beside the point Yep, yeah, I dude, like the dumb, Yeah, totally. You know, he embraced it better than than any of us. It's like, you know, as I talk, a good game, but it wasn't even he brought you over that line. You talk, you talked about him, you know, you got over that line. And every time I walked over to you guys pit you know, he made you feel like you were the funniest guy, and like my humor just got super filthy whenever I walked over to you guys. And I think Patrick can attest to that. I mean, she came over with your daggering videos. You expect you creep and I blame Ryan, you know, or just maybe just all of you guys. I think he brought us all. You know, he just brought us all over past that we got dirty. I mean that's you know whatever. You know, it's like whatever we were always we were always dirty. That was to be sure, like it was kind of dirt you're born with. Yeah, exactly, Yeah, it doesn't come. You know. I grew up around auto mechanics, you know, Ryan grew up on farmlands. And you learn how to curse really well. At some point you do things like start a rap group and effectively, you know, take your cursing to the next level. And then you get dropped into this you know, Squeaky clean video game website for a good long time. And then when you come out the other end of that and you're like, well, what if we merged the two? What was his was his main rap name. I know you guys, you guys had DJ Furley. Yeah, you know, I don't know, there's a uh yeah, he had things that you made it. I'm just I'm remembering that face he would make when it's just like that, that the pyramid hands on the nose, when he just saw something just astounding that and they said, oh my god, oh my god. And then just when something was just so dumb, just like it was just too much much. It wasn't even an ironic sorry, go ahead, Alex. Now, I was just saying it sustained him whenever he saw something like just you know, crucially dumb or idiotic, like it became sustenance for his soul. Like, yeah, he wanted more of it. It's wanted to eat it, just wanted to just absorb it into himself. I don't think it was even ironic. Most of the time. It was like a genuine appreciation for a stupid, stupid shit, uh that that most people just walk past without a second glance. But he was always he was always had the dumb radar. It's so dumb, it's so dumb, it's so dumb. Those pitchons going ahead and over there, I remember I remember driving down the interstate in North Carolina with him and driving by the birthplace of Dale Earnhart, and we had to go like he got he went on vacation with your family, vacation and he went with you would not leave that state without going to see the nine foot tall bronze statue of Dale Earnhart. Wow, it was like one of the happiest days of his life. I remember that very well. That might have been on ironic appreciate Maybe you're right, you might be right, in fact, very earnest about Earnhart. That was I mean, you know, to be fair, that was a simpler time when we were a lot more honest about the things we liked. And it wasn't this true horrible era. We I feel like we're coming out of it where people can be genuine about the things they like again. I just remember the Onion article. It was about like area man no longer no longer able to feign interest in the shit that he doesn't like, or something like that, Like, Yeah, I went through that exact phase big time of just like you know what, No, it's whatever, And then I just started being genuine about the things I liked and then that led to me leading listening to a lot of Britney spears here it is aging gen extra doesn't find bad movies funny anymore, like perfect that's yeah, yeah, that's I mean not like that's where I'm about Cobra and Chip. But Cobra is like a fucking no whatever, like that's you know, I'm not fucking around with people. When I talk about Tokyo Drift. It's not like some like it's so cheesy. He's like no, Like, you know, Ryan and I would talk about Torque. It's not some Susan Sontag notes on camp. And you will have a better appreciation for like you can you can and ironically enjoy something that is maybe not classy entertainment. Yeah, and I think he was really good at you know, find those gems out there. I'm probably not even talking to my Mike anymore. I am. I. Yeah, if only there's somebody here you can tell me? How could I say? We can hear? You can hear yourself? Right? They work working headphones, they are check check. This is just what it is to podcast with Matt Rory, just so you know, Yeah, you're not purpening all the way through this yeah, does this make it weird? I don't know. Sorry, I'll no stop, I don't know, doesn't make it at One of the things I always really enjoyed about I don't think I started using the word dumb and still I started hanging around you guys and especially Ryan, because that was just his go to word, the kind of summarize so many things. And what I really appreciate about the fact that he could he could genuinely appreciate things that were dumb or stupid or just playing funny, but he was also really good at articulating what it is that was so appealing about them, as opposed to just like he would start with the word dumb and then find ways to explain to other people like why it is like fast and furious and stuff like that, or d box, Like he was able to find ways to explain the dumbness uh to other people in a way that that you know, I have certainly strived to try and do, but he was able to do with just just for list. Yeah, it's because it's because that kind of stuff was dumb without being stupid, you know, like there was a there was like a nuanced like knowing kind of dumbness to it, and he there was a but being stupid was awesome, Like there was a real childlike quality to his enjoyment of some of that stuff, Like you know, D Box was just like I'm gonna go down to the fancy movie theater and sit in the shaky seats like you know, like that, because why wouldn't you see the movie in the seat that's like a roller coaster. Yeah, we went and saw Fast five in D box and there's a scene where they pivot around. Was like, it's in Brazil. The statue the Cristo is what they call the Yes that's sure, the god guy or whatever, the Monte Cristo, Yes, the statue of the Monte Cristo Mount Christ And they're panning around that and the chairs pivot as if this is pivoting around with it. And I just wanted to grab him and say, this is the best decision we've ever made, uh, because just imagine some man in a it's like somebod you have the telescope that back, and just envision the man in the room coding the D box to do that. Like I remember, didn't he get in touch with somebody who like the podcast? I was talking about that stuff, and you know, yeah, he really was genuinely excited when like people who listen would write in and be like, I'm actually a part of what you guys were just talking about, and he was genuinely super interested and like and I think shocked. I think we're all are little shocks, like, oh man, you forget that people listen to this totally, but he would. He would. It always seemed to me like as somebody who's not very social, like I, you know, get the email, I'd probably share with you guys and be done, but he would like follow up and then like you know, we're like, yeah, I'm going to meet this person. I'm going to this factory where they do this stuff. Like he he's really good with people, Like yeah, like a very uh like social is not really the right word. It was just a I don't know it was something I really admired through or something he had something. I mean, it was effortless because I mean like when you say what you're social, it feels like it's a learned talent or it's something that you have to try and do, whereas like whenever you read all these write ups about people's impressions of Ryan or their interactions, like there's such a thread to them that it was not something he was doing, it was just how he was. And like I feel like, you know, Vinny, when you were saying earlier about how he wasn't just kind of he had this real sort of like it was funny that he was even alive, Like it was just everything was a big joke because holy shit, how did I get here? And that that seemed to be his approach to everything, as opposed to sometimes it's like when you're around people, it's like, oh, I guess I have to be social. Like that just wasn't Ryan, like if he wanted to be off, like he was off and he just left. He was one of those guys that just disappeared, like at bars and stuff like that. Those assholes. Yeah, he was one of them. He would ghost. He would just ghost out of there. You just turn around. He was like, where's that guy? Oh God, I thought I was gonna stay this place. Every yeah, it got bad, Like wait, wasn't he driving? Fuck yet? You have to catch him just before he's about to go. And one time he was like, I gotta go, I gotta get I gotta to the airplane, I gotta take the bar or something like that. I think I was like, here's sixty dollars, you're gonna take a cab, you can, I'm gonna buy two more drinks. And I remember that that was because I just like, I just wanted him to stay so badly, just complete shock. That was great. Yeah, but you know I couldn't get enough Ryan. Yeah, between all of us, how many times do you think we've all slept on a Ryan Davis couch. I yeah, I almost had two once. I think I've slept. I think I've slept in at least two of his different places, once in San Francisco and once when he was living with Jeff here and our friends Scott. Oh, yeah, I was. I slept on his couch many times in the city because I was capable of going home. That's how he met Anna. She was living in the house behind that place or in the Richmond Yeah. And you know, I had kind of known her through movie theater stuff. Like you know, we were all kind of ended up through one way or another, getting wrapped up in slash dating people in this kind of movie local movie theater circuit. It's really where you go to to meet totally. You want to meet ladies that know how to stay up late, meet ladies to get off at midnight and then get off at one. You know what I'm saying, what, Yeah, pound that out. I feel pretty good about Let's back that up. I'll lay it out one time. But uh something, this was like the dirty site compared to I don't know, Uh yeah, yeah, so you know, we we ended up. It was it was really great for a good long time. And I think, you know, he he ended up taking or getting more out of it, I think than I ever did of you know, because at some point I was only going to these Thursday night employee screenings of brand new movies because it was the invite was there and the you know, it was the people or whatever, and you know, I think at some point I just kind of that that led to me burning out on movies overall to some extent, whereas telling about it, he just consumed that stuff. Just it was maybe it was a novel for me because I never knew anybody that worked at the theater before, but like going up there with him when she would be working like she would. Uh, it wasn't even employee screening where they're like testing the reel or whatever set up. She would go to the trouble. That's about how much she loved him, I guess, And she would go to the trouble of building all those reels back up right, just to movies for us on some random night, like we went up there and saw like Batman begins and trans all this stuff. Oh, I actually have a question, go ahead, No, no, that's what did Ryan I to read? Like, did you read novels? Did you read books? Not? Not a big He read a lot of the Internet. Yeah, damn it. I wish I a lot of a club. I'm just curious because I used to play a game where I would turn over to him at my desk and I would mark down on my note program on my computer if he was reading the it was It wasn't there was. It's a really deep note chart. We'll turn that into HR for the performance improvement. Yeah, no, it's He definitely did some reading and I can't remember what now. It's like nothing but dragon Dragons of Pern or something. Remember I remember mentioning a fair amount of stuff he read as a kid and like a teenager. Yeah, yeah, a lot of elmore definitely, Yeah, Dave would probably be definitely, I know, I know he was really into Douglas Adams. Yeah really shit, yeah m hm, like he was, oh god, he was just made and somewhat in sense that I've never read Hitchhiker. The best thing about all this day is that I have not seen a single person used a phrase so long and thank you for the fish. I am so happy that everything I know. Sorry, now, now guess what people gonna tweet at me for like the next twenty four hours. I just say, yeah, it's gonna be an image of a MacBook Air with a picture just says so long, thanks all the fish on the front of that laptop. And you're gonna see that a thousand times now and then a dog and the dog will be looking sad, not even a cute way, just a sad dog. Legs hot legless dog. Yeah, stile and all the thing. Yeah, tell me more. It's a great TV show. It was like, yeah, yeah, we could speak and out of that, and then that that kind of comes out of that as you know, like all that movie theater stuff and you know, you know, you spend a summer speaking exclusively in heat quotes, you know, amongst a crew of about five or six people when you're out taking cowboys scores and such. Yeah, it was a lot like that. You know, you definitely a group of people consuming a lot of the same things to getting the same things out of them, and then incessantly repeating those things to each other. But you know, it was you know, it ended up being actually nice because it was it was one of those things where you know, we were seeing so much of it, it wasn't you know, you could you could still feel good about getting angry about people that just talk about The Big Lebowski all the time because you've operated on such a deeper level so many multiple movies. Jesus Christ, get out of here. It's a great movie. But fuck off. Of course it's a great movie. Of course you've seen it. Shut the fun. So he did dress up as a John Goodman from that movie for Halloween, Christian. Remember that reminded me of that yesterday because that that party was Yeah, that was the best Halloween party I've ever been to in my life. And he that was the best Walter soap check I have ever seen in my life. And he had a camelback full of bourbon on him. Oh my god, I didn't go to that party, but I remember hearing about that it was camel Back. It was. It wasn't that ridiculous huge house in the mission that they have read some of some people we know still live in to this day. Was the Was the count ever there? The like the legendary couch child. I don't believe that was Ever. I don't. I don't think that thing would have survived that house. Okay, so probably not. Uh, but yeah, like it was. He was just like the spitting image. He had the attitude down. Yep. He could say the show m Shamas Javas line perfectly and he was drinking whiskey out of a camel back. Nobody I know ever did the John Goodman bellow better than Ryan. Yeah, you could bellow like a motherfucker. And then you know it's like eventually, I feel like, you know, we all kind of you know, as you do, you grow out of that and kind of start doing your own thing instead of just repeating other stuff all the time. Yeah. Yeah, this and it was you know, like we were you know, we we'd talked about like after coming back from packs and doing like our panel and the Cars against Humanity panel, like there was this real element of just like like we could probably like do this, like we could probably like we should, like we could like put on a fucking show and you know, like to some extent, kind of fucked this video game stuff and go out and do something, you know. And we've been talking to a couple of people. Max Deempkin and was like, oh, yeah, you know, it's like maybe we could, you know, as a theater in Chicago. Maybe we go get that and just give it a shot, try it out, see what happens or you know, like I don't know, And we had kind of been talking about that and then, you know, everything here has just been so fucking crazy for so long, but you know, we never really revisited it. You know. Sorry Jesus Christ, God damn it. I don't really wanted that show to happen. Yeah, me too. I always wondering what his stand up would be, I think, you know, so he and I talked about it because at one point I kind of got it in my head that I was like, you know, maybe like I could you know, maybe I could put together something, and and he was very much just like no, no, no, like you could do it like this, like we can figure this out. You gotta love that brutal honesty of it. Well, talking talking to him about comedy was always really fun because yeah, he had like Brian his roommate, was a stand up and you know, like so he kind of rolled in the officiated as his wedding, that's right. Yeah, uh, and so you kind of rolled in some element of that in a little while. Oh that's right. Oh man. Yeah, I remember going with him and Anna to one of his roommates shows where he was opening for Ron White. Oh and then we got to go backstage and meet Ron White in his dressing room with like two twenty year old girls, and we were there for about ninety seconds and then we realized we really needed to not be there. Yeah, geez, Ron White a lot of good Ryan stories, but it was just like breaking down comedy was always funny. He was a huge comedy nerd. Yeah, like the science of comedy, Why why something is funny, why something's not funny? It was really helpful with you know, like those Game of the Ear scripts and stuff like that, which I mean, you know, make no mistake you wrote those. But I sat there and occasionally lobbed up some dumb shit. But you. But at some point it was just what are you doing? Hey, where's Ryan? It was like, I'm just punching this up. It's like, yeah, exactly. Yeah, you know, he tightened that up real well, just putting funnier words in word and like it's true, like he knew why, and it was like funnier. Uh damn fucking funny, dude. Probably my favorite career thing in this industry was that was that Liverpool trip, and it was just it was a lot of just hanging out with Ryan. He was having such a blast and and like I told the story before, but the night before we left, just going out with those dudes and stayed out all night and ran back to the hotel, uh past everybody waiting for the charter bus that was going to take us to the airport. Uh yeah, running upstairs and then five minutes later running back down with our bags. I mean, all right, let's we're leaving, right, let's go like eight in the morning. He ah. He had such a good time. He really enjoyed that trip. And I just you know, he used to tell me stories about I mean told him here too, about traveling when he was young. Yeah, yeah, you know, definitely he got around. He loved it. He was one of those He was one of those guys that did that, like I don't know how long it was, but one of those long europe trips where he just bought a rail pass and like travel. Yeah. Uh that always just seemed so crazy to me, like that it was noways sound it's so awesome. Yeah, knowing him, it didn't seem crazy that he was doing it well, but like I would, I don't think I could ever do that, and it just like the whole concept sounds so nuts to me, but like so alluring at the same time. Yeah, I was always really impressed with with that because he was Yeah, he was like I think he was like nineteen or something when he went to the first time. He would definitely throw himself into that stuff. Yeah, totally came back to North Carolina with me for that fourth of July. We had about three days notice before the flight. We were sitting there like two like right before the break was about to start flights and I was like, shit, these flights were like two hundred and fifty dollars, and he was like fuck it, let's go. Yeah, so like just book flights and went yeah, man, like no notice. But he was so good at just like like when we went to those places in Liverpool, just like on the few people and there there are a couple and one of the few people that I feel like when he siddles up to a bar, feels like he should be on the other side, Like he he should be the dude who's like talking to you, having you know, the bartender wants to talk to him kind of thing. And because I'm terrible at that, give me a drink. I'm just gonna be Quiet'm gonna sit here. You would talk to dudes and be like, you know, what's your story where you're from? Uh? Somehow had some weird new a piece of the knowledge that that person knew, like had some point of interest to relate to. And we just talk to those guys. And I'm sure the guys when we went on that Blur trip, I mean, you guys are hanging out with Ryan. He could the circle forms around him kind of uh, And it's kind of just was great to just be able to watch that happen and not have the pressure of having to I don't maintain a conversation here and watch that form. That was a really really fun trip. He could he could just kind of mold him self into any environment that you know, he wanted to. I mean, as long as he felt like he was in a good mood in social like, he could ingratiate himself to just about anybody anywhere, high society, low society. Oh my god, I remember when we got there, on that trip that we took together. We took a red eye overnight with a stop in Texas, So we're talking like not only up all night, but it's like a nine hour trip or something. Yeah. Yeah, we still got the rental car, and the first thing he wanted to do was go to a waffle house because he'd never been to a waffle house before. Man, I've still never been a waffle And he got steaking eggs, and he was so excited about being in a restaurant you could smoke in that he sat there halfway through the meal smoking a cigarette over top of the steak and eggs. I guess he yeah, I see, I remember as a kid, like you could smoke in places in California. Maybe he's just maybe the age difference is just enough to where he didn't have that. Yeah, some places you can still get away with it. But it's kind of yeah, you know, the doors and cops doesn't thing though, Like he loved like really good bird and stuff like that, but he also liked slum it. Oh yeah, totally. Yeah. It's I mean, he and I drank a lot of bad malt liquor, you know, like that's oh yeah, like I never wanted anything to do with no bourbon. Uh, you're missing out. That's well, you know, let's have some forties and mickeys and then I'll tell you about not missing out. I think I think I had my first good bourbon ever because of him. I think it was some at some point when he was we was living in Petaluma at that one place with Scott and I. I mean, i'd had it, but i'd never had someone grabbed me by the shoulders and say, no, you're drinking this wrong and like pour me what he but I think it might have been a bottle of Eagle rare or whatever whatever his favorite stuff was, and it was just like here, one piece of ice go and made me drink it in front of him so that he could know that I had at least done it right once. And I appreciated that because I actually enjoyed bourbon after I never liked it before that. He never tried with me. I think he knew better and knew that it was just it was never gonna work. He's always really big on that one commented thing. Commented very specifically to me one time about that. Yeah, when I said something to him about like wanting to change your taste in something like, I forget what he said, but he painted it as an exercise and futility. Yeah. I always liked that he would order his bourbon and his drink at the same time and just get him both, get his bourbon with one ice and a beer. Yeah, oh, yeah, he was. He was real big on the opening double fist that was his opener. There was a one happy hour where he was sitting down He's like, Hey, could you fill up this entire thermis with bourbon and just put one piece of ice? And I was like, I was like, like the whole thing. I don't know how many ounces in that thing, but that's prediculous. I was, and I got it because I really like bourbon, you know, and that was an easy like transition for me to make with it. I was like, man, this guy's a truck man. It's just like he can take it down. Yeah, yeah, he would. He would often do the double fist through two or three rounds, not just the first stop for a second. And like, I do not think I've ever worked with him when he's not like a drunk at work. It's not like he was running a rabbit flast. It's just stipping, getting a nip here and there right before everything. Like I think he enjoyed pop is ready once what's six o'clock rolled around? That would all bets were fucking off at that point. Even as far as you know, he enjoyed a drink during a show or something like that. But like if there was the environment that we it was called whiskey media people, let me come on right right, I don't think at a bar in the office. I don't think there was ever a point where I was like, you know, going to you being like to trunk for this quick look, big take ready, he's in the room just sprouting obscenities, dragons, dogma, Oh my god, god, he's pretty smart about it. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Then he'd asked for a hand massage, which was always kind of weird. Lexisco, give me a drink and my hands are cold. You massage my hands. But he was pretty smart about it. Never got too weird, you know, nothing was ever weird, Nothing was ever weird, you know. And he was just such a such a big, affectionate, teddy, teddy bear kind of guy, you know. And just like he made it not feel weird that he enjoyed shoulder rubs. You know. It's just like I'm like, why am I massaging this big man now? And why do I not feel weird about it? Though? I mean he would give the occasional unrequested back rubbs, oh yeah, I and that that man gave just just great hugs, you know. And part of it just was his stature, you know, the fact that he could just completely envelope you, you know, just you disappear within within those arms. But he had such conviction in those eggs, and I was really super appreciated those for sure. You know. There was The last that I saw him was when he we went to come pick up that arcade machine from from my place with Vinnie, and you know, he was we were moving ourcade machine. So in this case, like him being horribly sweaty was completely understandable, and he was just just drenched. And but I knew this was the last time I was going to see him, so it was like, well, we'll give me a high. He's like no, no, no, no hugs, and I was like, well, I'm gonna give you one anyway, and just like it's because with him, like yeah, you just you just wanted to. He was just that kind of guy. He was that that sweat was something else. Man. That that last that last party about a year ago after watermelon oh yeah, yeah, which we should not elucidate on. Just caught the watermelons and leave it to people's imaginations. The Calvin and Hobbs noodle incident, that's all it is. And he's just drenched in sweat, like just so it was hot, it was, and he comes up to me and he's and and he just puts his face right into my T shirt, right Ryan face print at that point shroud of torrings exactly because he pulled away and I was like, there's your eye sockets like there like it was his sailing and it was like a tannish colored T shirt. So the sweat was just the contrast on it was just oh god. And then at his wedding, I remember after he gave me that big kiss. He puts his forehead right up into me and and he was just like, I love you, man, and I go, I just I love your sweat. And that was it. You know what you got you gotta I love you. He came up to me, poured a bottle of water like human for hug. I'm like, cool, yeah, hug me. He holds me with one arm, bottle of water with the other one, and he says, Matthew Rory, you are a human pizza shit as loud as you could. I wasn't even mad, like yeah, Drake and I caught that. I was talking to Drake like from inside the house looking out and you know whatever, we're complaining about video games like you do. And uh, I'm just watching this fucking thing like hustle, like a tender moment. Likely yeah, of course I'm trying to pull away. He holds me, start to struggles cold, and as soon as the water, I think it's just like, yeah, I got a quarterway through the bottle. I think you just accepted it and okay, and then Matthew Rory, you're shit like whoa. Uh. I was trying to pull up the picture that I took of you during that moment I have. I think I have it. It's something yes in the action, and I think you got the aftermath, right, I got the aftermath, and just you were looking I was happy he was just looking at me. He he made you feel loved in odd ways sometimes, but you always felt like you know, you knew where that dude stood. If you were not good standing with Ryan Davis, he would let you know. And and even theoretically other people when I if I have ever other people call me a human, he's ship, I'd probably take offense, but I knew it didn't he didn't. He didn't meant it like that. Yeah, a lot of these separates and then he hit me I was garbage. I love that guy. I love that guy threatened to shit on my life. I feel like he did. I feel just you just don't know him. Yeah, you just don't know him like I do. I feel like he just cut you out, Like I feel like when he was really just did not want to deal with you. He just didn't talk to you. You you were just cut out. And like I feel like there are a few people I've seen that were just not entertaining him anymore. She's like, this is just not even fun to tease you anymore. I definitely had to earn that respect. If you didn't have that, he didn't, you know, have have much time for you. Yeah, like you know, and like in some ways, like the cheasing, Like I feel I've read a lot of stuff about you know, Ryne's teasing and being teased by Ryan. We talked a lot about it, but like I do feel like there are a couple of times like stuff would go too far, and I feel like you you know, for me personally, it's almost like you flick him on the nose right and it'd be like, well, I'm sorry, you know, Like all you had to do is let him know that. Like I mean, if he actually liked you that like hey man, that was maybe a little too far, and he'd be like, oh, I'm so sorry, Like I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm an asshole. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And like dude knew how to take take an apology and knew how to give an apology. And I think that's part of why I think we're everything I reading and what we're talking about is why you could love him, because like it'd never gotten the way. I don't know, it just never felt like a fucking asshole called me she's a carbage. He's so hard my glasses behind the bar. Let me come on. Oh good lord, I feel like I share something special with you now, Brad. Apparently apparently it's not a very exclusive club. I thought I thought I was special, like I haven't been in a fight in years, you know. And as just the stars I saw at the wedding, I was just like, christ I love you. Yeah, damn at least that wedding was. But again, it was last time I saw him, and he was just fucking deliriously happy. That's because it was one hundred and twenty five degrees. We all were, Yeah, ceremony. I was just sitting there at the ceremony and like the sun was just beating down, like I had not moved in like ten minutes, and I was still just sweating profusely. I mean, I can sweat when it comes time to do it, too sweat. And then we had to go back out there for the dinner. I was like, oh my god, I don't know if I can take it. But that's why you poured water. I mean, just show them, show me helping you out, Yeah, looking out for you. Aiding my natural cooling abilities. Yeah, we had to, you know, before the ceremony started. I had to just like, okay, no one, lock your knees, just to lock your knees up there because it's so fucking hot, like it was one hundred and four degrees or something when we were That would have been a prime candidate for something like the Unbously there's Old American's Funniest Home Videos or somebody just yeah, you lock your knees, your circulation goes whatever. You you know, something happened to end up passing out or whatever it is. I think Drew and I will run. Drew and I were running a little late, and I get a text from Dave. From Dave, it just says it's ing on the mountain and we're like like ten minutes trying to figure out what that man figuring it out. And I was like, what are you somebody crying? And then he just two words later, just Ryan sweats, you know, and well, yeah, you guys must have been sitting out there for a while because we we drove up right before and yeah, we got there maybe sixty seconds we started it. At some point like it was just you know, you're like, oh, that's fun. Yeah, didn't you have backup shirts at the wedding? Three three shirts? Three identical shirts? Throw it's just smart, Yeah exactly, let's just knowing yourself. Oh that's sell does one day? Uh So we are looking to put together a T shirt for sale. I've actually been emailing during this podcast trying to get it all set up. Disrespectful man. Yes, it'll be, it'll be. Uh yeah, we're looking that'll be a benefit to his wife, So look for details on that to come. And uh just gonna be a print Alexis of what he left behind in your shrouded Ryan. We do haven't we haven't something in motion? So yeah, well this this weekend such shit. Yeah, this weekend is a bad weekend. Was the worst, the worst four day weekend of my life. Now. Yeah I heard on Wednesday you guys were all gone. I was still here. Yeah yeah. Yeah. The worst part is not being able to tell anybody and like worrying that it would be something that we couldn't weird. I mean, I think you know, everyone needed private time for with this stuff before kind of sure getting it out there. It's just yeah, I don't know what. At some point someone will write the book on like grieve in the modern era of social media and all this other you know, it's like so many weird circumstances and just like all this stuff. But yeah, it seemed like the most important thing was respecting the absolutely family to Anna and the family more than anything. But and you know it seemed overly cautious. It was. It was because yeah, like you said, like in this modern area, it was. It was. It was the right amount of caution for me, that was. And I don't think I would have been prepared to say anything but Monday, like it just it did. It did leave you in a weird limbo though, where none of us were in the situations where we saw him all the time. You know, it's like there was like four days long weekend was like not not coming back to the office. It was just the timing of it. You know, it's like you're not not getting you were back in the office. You weren't anywhere where you would have seen him necessarily. So it was easy to it was easy for your rational mind to reject the notion that it had even happened. Well, next time, we'll see if we can get him to dine on Wednesday or something, you know, I was just like it there was wait, it wasn't. I wasn't. Yeah, I mean that you should better. That Thursday barbecue was probably the most important point. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of us just we'll all get together at Day's place. I woke up the next day wanting to do that whole thing again because I didn't know what else to do with myself. I think I got a text from you like the next day, like what are you doing what? I think we met up again that day, you know, just just being around like friends. It's just like super important and just like I met like the world in all weekend long, pretty much like She's like you've mentioned, like Jeff mentioned something about pacing around in your house and like it sounds like such a cliche, but it was literally just like holding your hands and walking back and forth from room to room, like just going fuck, like what what? I kept trying to bead stuff, and I was like I sipped skipped the next page, and I realized I'd entirely forgotten. Even today, I was trying to write up like my fucking too like half year review, and I've been here two months and I'm just like trying to write like what are the three things your manager can do to help you out? More Like I'm just sitting there like looking at it, like what, I don't even I can't even know about those. Yeah, I was just gonna forward over the last ones we did and say it's like this still I totally forgot about that. I uh yeah. I headed up on Wednesday night to up to Dave's and say Jeff, and then it actually taught me a lot about my bug out bag. I was like, all right, if I had to, like because it was basically I was coming back. I had come to the office after after hours to come pick up some stuff and found out on the way there and just was heading back to home and I was like, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna head up. I'm gonna hit home for like five minutes and we're gonna split and then we're gonna head up. And like, I totally can't do this, Like I have to pack a bag. I've got to now I have. Now I have forty eight hours of close having a bag with a toothbrush and deordorant, and I am that much more care now. Thank you Bryan for imparting how important it is to just like I don't need any of this. I don't need a camp stove. I need underwear and socks. Like, but how great would have been if you'd just rolled in with so I'm fucking ready got this camp stove, bring it on, ran it out of underwear day ago. Well, now that we've broken the amazing podcast equipment again, yeah, the podcast just crapped out. You didn't miss much true podcast fashion. We'll talk about we need to do this again, which was like pretty much yesterday. You know, like breaking the news a second time and you already know the news, you know what's coming, and you know at the you know, Ben did a pretty good job to telling them, like the gay Spot people, and just I thought I'd be prepared for it, and just like clearly wasn't. It was. It was so weird having to think of like technical things like spinning up extra servers and making sure our site doesn't break like does every goddamn time. It was man, I mean I started feeling anxious like Sunday afternoon. Yeah, like I was just like all weekend. I wanted to get to Monday because I was going crazy at home. But at that point I was just like I'm not ready for tomorrow, Like it's seeing the amazing things. People started tweeting, and today has been like do not we do not endorse graffiti of rest in peace. I don't know if I saw this, but yeah, somebody has tagged up the side of a building, do not endorse that. Maybe please be respect you don't kind of somebody got a sign on that sides Monday at raw was that's way that's way better than the story that I found. Yeah, there was someone with that from the last night. I wonder if it's the same guy. I saw Dan Reicher talking about someone with some game Former signs at the show too. That is that Taswell thing? People? Some people have asked like what is it? It was. It's so it's not his middle names, his grandfather's name. It it's is they I think when they were naming him, originally they wanted to give him like, you know, some some family name, like his grandfather's name, and they knew it was like ct something and they see they thought was Thomas, and then they had filled out the form and then realized no, it was actually tas Well. So it turns out it was not turns out. It was yeah, right, really weird time, really weird. But yeah, so he kind of just took a liking to that as a weird ass old timey name, uh and and used it where appropriate again going back the amazing tas well born out of a vaudevillian trunk, just like big muck, curly mustache and top hat. I'm telling you man, Yeah, that image of him and the top hat and it's like stripy suit with the tails, just like selling elixers. Yes, running a real medicine ket out of town. I don't give this price to everybody. I call this the d box seat. Like what was it? Dave said? And that right up he did. It was like a like hopping around like a con man celebrating his final score. Like that's that's pretty goods how the wedding felt. M oh god, it was a nice wedding, Yeah it was. It was weird too. It's a weird, like like Anna's dress became like a bug trap in the middle of it. Did you see that? Man? It was so weird to look but I ain't holy shit, Yeah, I like how. I like how his cocktail was just burpon with like you know that thing cocktail or whatever some cocktail it was. It was called the Disney Shipwreck, right, it was, yeah, I think shipwreck on the rocks, Shipwreck on the rocks. And it was just like, uh, like mint and I think like cherries. And I saw them refilling it and they were just like just there. I think what happened was that the initial batch was an actual cocktail, and then when the batch was gone, it was just ice, mint and ice, and the lady was just like, well, I don't really have the ingredients, but I've got makers, and she just kind of started dumping it in and you know, we just basically just tasting flavored whiskey. And I think, you know, six or seven I had a little bit of that, and I thought it was all right, Yes, it was good, dangerously good. You know, best wedding ribs I've ever had my life. Had a couple of servings good food overall. I do that wedding again. I eat at that wedding again, and see if we set it up. Oh god, corn bread, you know, it was the honey butter on that. Yeah, and then they ran out of corn bread and I was just mad like eating. I'm I'm glad at least that they ran out of it, because there was a moment where I was like, I should go up and get more of that, and I'm like, nahs, Like I probably shouldn't because if I just went up there and ate, I would I would eat a lot more of this food than I should. Uh. It's not a good weather to beat over eating it. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I've never seen you over indulged in eating, you know, never, No, I don't know. It's not like I'm trying to eat a hundred chicken nuggets. So what do you say? You're gonna get it done? You give it another shot? Sure, I mean he he would have wanted it that way, that's true. That's right. How long can we spend justifying like the most ridiculous it's really we would have wanted. Yeah, we got to find another toilet, another cake. He put on an impressive amount of meat at that Brazilian steak place. Oh he did, Oh lord, oh my god. That was that was almost We were all like, so, I don't know, you can tell the story if you went to spet us here in NSF and it's it's a can eat plays and they'll bring around like suns of meat, swords of meat, and you have a you have a little green red thing like if red meats do not bring me anywhere meat, you might as want to superglue that thing to the green. He was still sitting there eating when all of us had been like gotten up and staggered outside, like I need air, I need to walk outside right now. Nope, he was getting his goddamn money's worth. He was the man knew what he liked and then he went out and got it. Yeah, and that's like that's he's like, I try to live my life like that now. In a lot of ways, Ryan was sort of inspiring because you know, he he didn't see barriers. He was just like I want I want that, and he went and got it. I just admired his decisiveness in things as mundane as like ordering a drink or food or something. You know. It's like I never saw him him in hall or any menu or something like that. You know, it's just like you exactly what he wanted and he just did it. That. The man was French dip say that. The only time that we ever kind of went back and forth on two decisions were uh, the whiskey media Happy Hour promo slot images because those are usually food based, right, and it would be like a three hour long ord deal of me. I am in him back and forth. Hey you like waffles? His waffles okay today? Well I don't know about funnel cakes, dur, But it didn't matter, you know, no, no, he it was him going back and forth on It was just it was that and also the new his custom new Balance shoes, the ones you designed the design to those, right, what was awsome sort of because we well yes, we spent like two weeks going back and forth, like going through all these colors and I was like, wow, you know I thought about this because of that, and he was like, man, these are these are almost there. These are like they're like purple and yellow and like they're They're awesome. And then he went to order them and they came out white and blue and I was and I was like, what happened. He's like, I don't know, I just baller time happened. I don't know if he just decided to just write Baller Time and then just like everything else, just made itself, you know. Yeah. So I still think I have the order sheet for his other custom new balances that we spend just many, many go back and forth on. But those are the only times I ever saw him, you know, without that conviction right away. Right, So the important shit, Yeah, you know it's those super Bowl moments, you know you worried about. You gotta sweat the details on this stuff. That's the stuff that makes her breaks totally, the important things about a life. New Balance, so pride to announce new sponsor. Yeah, I really really, you know, if I had the motivation to actually do any work right now, I really wanted to have a third color scheme on Giant Bomb that was just gonna be all this new Balance sneak. But like the amount of work to randomize that because he had so many I mean I have I have pictures of all his shoes, and it's just he's got every color scheme imaginable, And I was like, how do I pick one? Well, how do I make it so that when you press the new Balance button every time you load the page the side up, you get a different color, you know, or different shoes. Great marketing opportunity it is, you know, somebody should sponsor the sight. Not wrong, not wrong? Yeah, So yep, the man could be confident even when wearing shoes that said all time. Yeah, because he believed it and all the time. It's right, he believed it so hard that you eventually believed it. Like, yeah, it is a good idea. This is a good idea, is probably a good idea, right, I finally learned how he had finally mastered moving arcade machines. Yeah, could do it in a man. That's like one step before getting a warehouse. Yeah. He We found out that Patrick that that that neo geo machine fit in the back of his car, and that's pretty much all we needed, right, that guy could have been moving arcade machines back and forth at that point, just to random places, just to be doing it. Set Hi up in a laundromat and tell anybody everyone's got a backup. Yeah, plan brand Vaudevillian arcade machine moved his baller time arcade. It's a good name for an arcade. It looks I'm approving shirt designs here. What we do have two options as well? He knocked up that one too, and yeah, I think I think that's the one. This one, this one, yeah, okay, this one. I mean you didn't show me any other ones, so I haven't don't have anything too. There's a there's a subtle difference punctuation which makes all the differences, right, the other one is bad. Yeah, that's the one. You want this one? Yeah, okay, cool, all right, we will we will hopefully get this set up by the end of the week. I don't know what the time frame is on this kind of stuff, but will the people at social. I was talking to the guy at Social in Prince and he and Kevin just kind of went on for a bit. He was like, yeah, met have a couple of times he apparently came out to you guys would have to concerts of his back in the day. Yeah. Yeah, he was in a band kind of around the time that I was around that whole thing, and and yeah, and a lot of you know Ryan stuff for the last you know, God only knows. I don't even know how long he's been doing the support stuff. But it was like, I still had people emailing me last night, just like sending it back to the support because they always got it from Ryan. And I thought, as all, really, I don't know where they thought they were sending it to. But it's kind of a it's interesting to go back and see all the stuff he's sent to people. So you know, we get we get a lot of weird not weird, but like one off problems that we have. Like and Ryan, I was always super plight, cool and tried to take care of everything, uh personally as best you kids, So it's fun to see m hm oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Yeah. Well yeah, I think we can bronze that chair. You might have to ask about that. God put the Ergo guy in here, and he's only in on Tuesdays. I always loved that Ryan. They the Ergo guy came in and got him that super fancy ass like arrow chair and then he was like, not fuck that, and he like, I think he gave it to David and he just and now he was sitting in like the shittiest chair with no gash. That chairs better than sir, is better than I think of than any of bars though I'm e in it. What what what yeah? Uh well yeah, I was gonna you know, have something you know, real meaningful, profound here, but you know I got it. So I think he would just brate you if you even if he tried. At this point, I guess, you know, condolences to his wife and his family, his family, absolutely, you know, it's an impossible thing to deal with and and yeah, I don't even want to imagine how how you do so. Uh and you know, the like Matt was saying, the stuff that's been coming out has been amazing, the community support and uh, you know, we all know, we all knew Ryan touched a lot of people, maybe inappropriately, but boil boy, Uh yeah, a lot of that stuff was really touching yesterday. I like the tributes, like when the Harmonics guys did that first stream, you know, yeah, that was great, that was really great. And going through there, there was one thread on on the forums it was just like pick your favorite Ryan moment, you know, and like that. Actually, you know, going through those like ten or twenty pages of all that stuff, because sometimes the community remembers the stuff that we forget about, right you know. And then I think once they started that form, I think was when we decided, like fuck it, let's just fill up all those promo slots with just Ryan shit. Like who cares about anything else on John Bomb right now? It's just front page is just all Ryan, you know, And and that's just like you wanted, Yeah, you guys, changing those promos at all. I don't know, Like I swopped out a bunch of them earlier. Yeah, yeah, and we stacked him pretty deep, so you know, keep clicking in there. So if people don't know how the promo system works, if you click on it, it goes away, and the next thing in the back of the queue, it goes to the back of the queue. So if you want to get to it, no idea. How that sound like on every side, it just makes so much sense. It's awesome. I know, it's great. It's true. Dave was the mastermind behind that. It was really good. Smart fucking shit. Yeah. He sits when they when they were when they're available, they're pretty great. Yeah, not not talking to versions like we've had some weird time. It was the last few couple of months that nobody could foresee coming. But yeah, traffic on that story blew away that X buck DRM thing. I know, the X back to work. I was looking at the last cosmic joke. Yeah, scooped, I know, it was so weird, Like I didn't, I don't know. I wrote that on Wednesday night thinking that somebody was gonna leak that, like right away. We'd have to have some kind of response. I put it together, Like I wrote one thing. You were talking about having something profound. I was writing the stupidest bullshit, like he'll leave a footprint on our lives forever and it'll be it's like flowers in heaven. I just looked at it was like, yeah, shit looks good. Uh yeah. We ran it with like basically no no real changes. Yeah yeah. Oh. Putting that story together yesterday it was I remember you became like do you want to do you want to look at it? No? No, fucking I fucking had to sit there and crop that image to go in it, and I just like had to stop at some point because my hands were shaking. It's just like it was like what you were saying about having to think about technical details around this kind of herbily personal event. It kind of helps to go through, like like I had, I had think I had the good fortune of having the support queue over the weekend, like people needing password resets and stuff like, just so I could like not think about anything else. It's like, yes, I can do that. I can take care of that for you right now, and here's your passord reset. Please go through the you know that stuff. It helps it did help to be at work on Monday for me or just trying to you know, just having that shit to do. I want of that stuff to get over so quick. I was in the office at like seven forty five and I'm like, what am I doing here? I was, I was just talking to you on AIM because I'm two hours forward. Yeah right, I was like, Okay, I guess I came into work to talk to Patrick. Actually felt really good, you know, and then it kind of sucked when people started coming over to my desk and they want to talk about work stuff and I'm just like and they don't know yet. Oh god. There was just one conversation like how was your weekend? And I was like, you know better, and I just like at one point, I was like, you really need to go talk to your manager. I need an adult, Like I just like I couldn't talk. I couldn't finish the conversation. Actually, fourth of July when fireworks are going off everywhere and like people are riding in the streets and ship like that, and you're just like, You're just I just want to drink, man, Do you not ask me anything? Like? Yeah? That harmonic stream is great. That it was real to the point it was a real turning point for my day yesterday when watching that and being being really confused and shocked and kind of I feel like probably all of us were. You just don't know how to handle this stuff. I think that was that was a point I think where I felt like, Okay, maybe we could actually get in this studio to do this now. Yeah, and thank you so much to you guys. And uh, it reminded me that so kaya laugh at this stuff when dude was a really funny guy. And then and some of that stuff, and then I was able to sit down and start watching some of the stuff we were going through. Yeah. That and the thanks Ryan Twitch was really good too. I don't know who who did that, but it was. It was just somebody playing YouTube clips from from stuff and over over summer jams, over YouTube clips of Ryan Davis, which is weird, but a lot of people hopped in there, and that's a good chat on twitch. Not only was a really funny guy, but just hated solemnity, like hated you know, he was always the first one there with a too soon joke and or just making a light of something that really shouldn't be joking. A comedian for his officient at his wedding, and and and that's and that's kind of I said it to you guys before. But the kind of real shame is that he would have known how to handle this the best and like I would have known how to handle a death of Ryan Davis the best way. And and that's kind of I wish I can get a cue to be like, it's just it's too soon. And there's definitely stuff like I'm talking to Jeff before of stuff that's like odds only he would find this funny, and so I can't actually say this or do this, but man, he would fucking crack up. Yeah, right now, that's definitely I think that's been. That's yeah, it was. It was definitely like a couple of cases where, you know, having had more days to kind of think about it and process it into something or nothing whatever. But I definitely had reached a point sooner than some other people about like how dark I could get, and I got there's definitely a couple of cases where it's like, all right, yeah, you're right that I was. That's too dark for you. I was a little shocked at how far you were willing to go on a couple of things. Yeah, but then you had the sense to pull back. You know, I guess I don't know. I guess it affects everybody differently. But I didn't feel like I could really start processing it until yesterday. Once it was out there. That was that was like for for I mean, I think I don't know how Alex felt, but I think, like, you know, given that we were away, you know, like it's where I am at. You know, nobody knows really, I mean, people kind of know that I write about video games, that no one knows what Giant Bomb is, no one knows who Ryan was. So in some ways it was kind of a refreshing escape because you know, I would kind of tell people like, oh, a friend of mine passed away, but it wasn't endless discussion and like telling stories and and so that's what made Monday so powerful, was because I kind of got to just bury it, and I was, you know, kind of dealing with my own stuff. You know, July three is now a pretty horrible day in patrock Klubbe's history book, which is why when when Vinnie called me, telling me, I was half convinced. Although I couldnt imagine Vinie doing it that if everyone was just drunk and pulling a horrible joke, because I was. I was standing on the driveway where if we had flashed forward forty five minutes from when I was talking to Vinnie, I was pulling up for my dad's own passing, and I was just like, this is fuck you, Ryan, God damn it. Yeah, but that's that's what made you know, Monday so powerful. Was just then all of a sudden, oh wait, you know, like this did happen? Like and then because I remember even when I was informing people, like on Sunday night, just trying to give people, I thought, would you know, deserve the heads up, you know again like in this weird age of social media, like people just seeing a tweet, you know, learning about it. It's like I thought I was, even though I knew I was, Like I knew it was Ryan, Like sometimes I felt like maybe I confused, maybe it was someone else that died, Like I don't want to be telling people the wrong information, because oh my god, that would be horrible. But you know, it's just because there was such a heavy weight around it that in some ways Monday was a relief just to kind of get it out there and and and see sort of the the impact they add and other people, because I mean, I don't know about you guys, but sometimes like the job we do, like we talk about video games, we write about video games, like sometimes I have weird existential crisises of like like I might do like I'm not really making anything, like what sort of impact am I really having? And and I haven't had. You know, Ryan had a bigger impact than most. But to see the way people responded was, I don't know, like in a weird way. It was like I found that part of it to be really amazing and validating for not only what you guys have created before I became a part of it, but just sort of what we do in general that I don't know, like it was it was weird for all sorts of reasons. Yeah, but surprisingly, like I think we only had one real asshole on the site all day yesterday. There was one dude. We had a band, but apart from that, it was just nothing but super respectful. I yeah, yeah, speaking of what Ryan would have found hilarious, I have been laughing at this for like the last This is Hollywoodlife dot Com Ryan Davis video game personality did at thirty four above her beauty must have Miley Cyrus her fave lip bomb revealed, I shit you not, this is this would have been cracking him up right next to Kanye. This is start breaking news. How they north since four Party. I have been trying not to. I've been looking at this for like five I have ten minutes now. I'm just trying not to laugh my ass off crack up at these solemn recollections the actual story like for the for the Rock and Davids gallery are fucking oh yeah. The pictures of him, they are priceless. God, I didn't even click through. Oh man, somebody takes I took God it's one of his his one of his sleep study pictures with like the electrodes Oliver's face. God, oh God, wow, Jesus, I thank you Hollywood. I've dout com that is the That's a tribute the man. When I wanted, he made it. Man, he made right. Now. Forget this, forget trending on Twitter, forget a Reuter's right up, so tired, this is so absurd. Is the true measurical success shot of him bare fucking hitting the gong is in there. O Jesus, somebody, somebody I don't know who wrote this, Uh somebody cared enou Oh man, weird. The world is fucking weird. It's been weird for a while, but it's not until you really see this type of juxtaposition. You're like, what the fuck happened? Like what is the Internet? Now? Who are something this extreme? Really kind of stretches the elastic boundaries of reality and then they snap back at you. Oh God, just for a dude who loved the twilight Zone, this whole last day feels like the one of the weirdest Twilight Zone episodes. And this is like the capping on everything. Oh man, I don't know how long it's gonna before I can look at stuff like that and not think about that. Like like twilight Zone is in the Entertainment Weekly, like top one hundred TV show list that just came out, and I see stuff like that, it's just fuck. Loved twilight Zone. Like I said, he loved this. You love that, you know I said before that, before the before the show, My my my hope was that he was somewhere in the nether realm fighting the good fight for us, and we're all alive because of him. Yeah, kind of fighting Freddy Krueger because the he had he had won his battle. Yeah, but the shitty new Freddy Krueger. These are the stupid conversations that happen. Mhmm. Yeah, he changed I know, he changed my life and and and that's gonna that's gonna change my son's life. Yeah. Yeah, he would have been a very interesting father. I think I have no idea, like the I have no idea how to think of Ryan as a well there. That kid would have been entertained as hell, wouldn't be ever be bored. It's gonna be really hard. Yeah, yeah it is. Uh, you know, it's fuck website shit. I mean that's obviously crazy. But everything for a while, you know, it's they keep saying, you know, they say like, oh, you know, time will pass and you know, eventually work through the grieving and all this stuff. And I I don't fucking buy it right now. I don't know. I feel better than I feel worse than I feel better than I feel worse. I guess that's supposed to be actually outworks. But well, uh, we'll keep doing what makes sense when we can do it. M But until then, we're not gonna do it. Yeah, and then you know it's the big thank you to Ryan. Yeah yeah, thanks Ryan. Thank and we'll miss you. And now let's go to email. Let's talk lip bomb. I'm so glad you cut that moment Jesus. Uh yeah, thanks everybody, and and uh I guess uh, we'll be back, like Jeff said, when when we're ready. Uh. In the meantime, go go enjoy everything that was Ryan. There's a whole side out there, I think, I think so many on Twitter said, but I just hug your friends. Yeah, let stick your face in the shop. We'll pour a bottle of water on his head, We'll slap him in the face. Human pieces of shit do it and don't even explain it, Just like, yeah, I love you, human piece of shit. I just uh yeah, and go have a good laugh. Yeah, thanks guys, We'll be back.