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Just watched a bit of the Virgin Fest stream and was pleasantly surprised by some of the music (FBI guy has a bit of a Neutral Milk Hotel-vibe) and by the fact that there were a few hot guys in the audience.

Good job Antifa, because if you didn't make a fuss about it, fewer people would know it existed. If anything, to fight the worst, most toxic aspects of the incel subculture, events like Virginfest just might be the antidote we need. You have a bunch of young people, male and female, who otherwise might've been home alone being lonely and bitter on the internet, enjoying music and nature and socializing in person. If you ask me, there should be more events like Virginfest.

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Virginfest just sounds like an unofficial/more fun All Tomorrow’s Parties (the only place I’ve ever been where the queue for the toilets was outside the gents).

All 80s indie music was basically incelcore - has Antifa never heard How Soon is Now?

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Nov 15, 2022
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I always found Belle and Sebastian incelly- no violence but dripping with misogyny, songs about loose women with questionable morals, and the sad boys who love them anyway. Did you ever see God Help the Girl? I found the weird objectification of Emily Browning’s character (again the vulnerable, broken girl attracted to the bad boy, while the quiet sensitive boy pines for her) really creepy.

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Haven't seen said movie but want to chime my thoughts:

this doesn't in itself incelly make, seeing as how there ARE girls drawn to bad boys in real life and there ARE women out there with very questionable morals who will take advantage of both men and women. Incelly implies there's been no actual experience with this kind of person, just a presumption that "I can't ever get a date because of xyz, I have never been with a girl etc." and any woman not interested is this kind of woman.

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They might even get dates!

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I drove to the Arlington show which was great. I was trying to explain what Blocked And Reported was to my parents and what the show I saw was about which prompted this sincere question from my Mom: “Where there a lot of incels there?”

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Saying "man juice" isn't funny, which makes Jessie saying it over and over, funny.

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Jessie, stop eating during podcasts.

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“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Ruined a Whole Generation of Women” is honestly a banger.

I am pleasantly surprised to see J&K cover an incredibly short lived blip of online culture during the heat of COVID.

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Katie was right about the pizza bit.

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Wasn’t sure what to expect after the Heterodox Academy live show which was, erm, sub optimal.

But that was genuinely good.

When the single AntiFa protester turned up at VirginFest, it would have been so on brand just to cut in “repent, motherfucker”, but I guess you can’t have everything.

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Yeah the Bruenigs do audio callbacks like that in their podcast (Matt Bruenig seems to do them live while they talk) and I always find it hilarious -- even when I don't get the reference

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I really enjoyed this recording! You guys had a great onstage vibe and it felt really easy and natural to me. Everything I like about the pod. If you ever actually perform in the PNW I’d pay to see it.

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I find it SO hilarious that this all went down at toki tattoo, one of the preeminent "queer tattoo spaces" praised on tattoo instagram. There is soooo much material for BARpod in that area. A couple years ago it was really inspiring to see a lot of young DIY tattoo artists shaking things up, but ever since 2020, things have turned super toxic. Some of the queer tattoo shop meltdowns are like the Mina's World story on steroids (no pun intended). Honestly, toki was living up to its ideals of "inclusion" by hosting incelfest! RIP toki you tried.

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Jesse and Katie are sitting very far apart... I always pictured them snuggling on a couch for these events

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I always imagined them sitting on a horse together

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First, love your handle. Next...actually that's all.

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Thanks! 😊

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I like the Negative XP song..... 😬😬😬

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The “so Antifa called the police, and five minutes later the police show up and start dancing while the virgins chant ‘we love cops’” segment made me regret listening to this at work because I couldn’t suppress my laughter.

Also, props for ending on a touching and memorable note with the comment about your mom, Jesse: “she’s in every episode”. Beautiful.

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It’s a different vibe with Katie and Jesse together - I like it!

Great show!

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Oy. I really like you guys (enough to subscribe by the year), and I look forward to every podcast. I think you do some excellent reporting and some entertaining reporting, and your on-pod banter is pretty good (though Katie’s repeated animosity toward Jesse is bewildering at times). But … why on earth do you think this would work on stage? If you’re not actually reading, you sound like you’re reading (which is usually not true on the pod) which is exacerbated by the fact that you’re reading louder, to an audience, making the whole thing sound like bad acting. It sounds stiff and unnatural, and any pod-banter you’ve developed feels flat—like you’ve got no chemistry. And on top of it, the audience laughter, which I’m sure is real, sounds canned.

I’m sorry, but I found this and your Heterodox recording painful to listen to.

Maybe the audience loves it—so be it—but I don’t get it.

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I was at the show and wasn't bothered by the fact that they were reading a lot of what they said. Without that structure the episodes might be too long and rambling, with way more 'um's and 'like's. Listening to it now, it does come across as a bit awkward. But then I've always preferred studio recordings of music, podcasts, etc., to live recordings.

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I wasn’t there but the energy of actually being in the room is probably a lot better than watching on video; think about attending a concert vs watching a concert video.

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Nov 12, 2022
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Yeah, I noticed that at the beginning but it seemed to be mostly resolved after a few minutes (or else I just got used to it).

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I was there. They were slightly awkward but it really wasn't that bad. I'm glad they did it. They'll get better and it's nice to see them in person rather than just having this weird parasocial relationship in my earbuds

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How cool to see them in person. I would love to go to a show if they keep doing them (and on the West coast!!). I bet it was a blast overall. I thought the recording was okay--maybe not their best, especially the technical quality but it was fun to hear what went on at one of the shows and I would be insanely curious if they hadn't have posted at least one of the shows.

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I agree. I used to listen to skeptics guide to the universe. Listen to it from its inception for over 10 years. And they started doing live shows all the time and they were horrible as podcast. For that reason and several others I unsubscribed.

I really hope this doesn't become a regular thing.

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I had the same exact reaction. Sounded like Jessy and Katie wanting to become a comic duo but It sounded extremely forced and read. Lost lots of the charm I love from the recorded podcast. It's ok guys, cant be good at everything !

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Weird, I had none of these reactions while listening

On the contrary, I quite enjoyed the cadence and patterns of live speech and live audience reactions even with the occasional natural pauses, especially compared to a tightly edited and clean sounding regular podcast.

But it might just be my perverse tastes.

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I felt the opposite. Loved the live vibe. Hope they come to London sometime.

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Same. I thought they were funny. I'm terrible at following their narratives, and still found myself LOL'ing plenty of times.

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I have to pause and google a lot and then rewind. LOL’ing here too.

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Katie and Jesse will figure it out. Next tour (and podcast) will be better. Video needed though.

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I'd have to agree, this sounded like offbrand BARPod, rather than the quality product I'm used to. The laughter was the most jarring part, as if someone added a laugh track from a sitcom.

Maybe it's just me, but probably I'll skip episodes in the future if they're from a live recording.

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Off-topic, but a pretty long NYT article was just published about the shoddy research on puberty blockers: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender.html

Focus was on bone density, detransitioners, and the toxic political climate. No discussion of the suicidality argument.

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Jesse (and anyone else) who liked the tunes from Windows XP or whateverthefuck he calls himself, please do yourself a favor and look into the 1999 bedroom-pop classic Ponyoak from Kleenex Girl Wonder. I’m not being sarcastic for once. It’s really good! https://youtu.be/cOA4EWfxInE

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I can’t tell which one is Jesse and which one is Katie.

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