Entertainment Industry in the Pandemic: Theaters, Streaming, Games, and Conventions

Hey, this is Steve blue and you are listening

to the geek cast radio network You are tuned

in to Steve Megatron on altered geek Hello and

welcome to altered geek I'm your host Steve Megatron

Phillips joining me in this adventure into geekdom

is like the Birdman Dodd Yes, it is Hello and

my connection Seems to work, which I say that

now and I'm probably going to disconnect again.

And I hear a kitty. Yes, my cat is complaining

because I'm talking. And Aaron Pellier. Hey,

how's it going? Hey, first time on Altered Geeks.

So anyways, this episode is going to be about

more or less the thoughts of the fallout of post

-COVID world on the entertainment industry, whether

good or bad. And I figured we could discuss things

such as like theaters, drive -ins. I noticed

how Patreon's laying people off now. The drops

in podcast downloads and subscription services

in general and just kind of the entertainment

world. How it's going to have to evolve in a

post -COVID world. So I figured it'd be a nice

roundtable anyway. Okay. Yeah, because obviously

this has dominated the news cycle since well,

it started in January and then obviously picked

up steam in the middle of March and now with

multiple states and provinces and pretty much

everywhere around the world feeling the effects

of it to multiple levels. Things are changed.

We live in a pandemic that has not been seen,

uh, at least in recent memory for many, many

of us and our lives have changed. Um, for different

means. It means some of us are social distancing.

Some of us have been laid off or furloughed.

Some of us are getting stimulus checks. Things

have changed. And that means the world has to

adjust accordingly. That means economies have

got to change. Industries have got to change.

Some industries are being changed to produce

personal protective equipment. And that's a good

thing. But Outside of the main thrust of the

government's response to it, which in Canada

is pretty good. Things are still, people are

still unfortunately dying in the United States.

That's an entirely different political thing,

which we won't really get into. The entertainment

industry has changed several, um, theater chains

are worried. They may not survive this such as

AMC theaters is wondering, can they survive this

and We really don't know several big entertainment

companies such as Warner Brothers, such as Universal.

I don't know whether many others are offering

their titles via early on demand. I know as of

this recording, the Warner Brothers feature Scoob,

which was going to be released theatrically,

is now going to be available via VOD in just

a couple of weeks. Universal was the first to

leave this charge off with the invisible man

bloodshot, I believe, which I think was so needed

that one. And Disney released onward via premium

VOD. And then it was released via its streaming

service, Disney plus a couple of weeks later

on April 3rd. So things are changing. One of

the big things that come out of the entertainment

industry in terms of video games, things have

changed hugely scalpers are reselling. um, Nintendo

switches for five, $600 right now and people

are paying it. Um, the last of us, which is a

video game that was going to be released, um,

by Naughty Dog, an entry in the series that people

have been looking forward to was supposed to

go. gold by now and be in retail stores in May

has now been postponed indefinitely. There's

even talk. Could the new consoles, the PlayStation

five and the Xbox series X, are they going to

get delayed? Um, it's an uncertain world that

we're certainly facing right now. And as Steve

alluded to in the intro, how does the world respond

to it? Because, um, it's kind of funny. I saw

this meme. online. And it was this picture of

a doomsday prepper. And he's surrounded by food,

weapons and everything else. He's like, I was

ready for this. I can survive in this bunker

for 10 months. And then it shows him in a bunker.

Um, or sorry, it shows him on like the front

steps of some random state capital. In fact,

I think close to where Aaron lives in Lansing,

Michigan. And it's like, I want a haircut. I'm

like, you stupid bastard. So We live in an interesting

world now, and people are adapting using the

video conference platform Zoom. As we record

this podcast, we're using Discord. Facebook is

up. Video games have been recognized by who is

a great way to relieve boredom and stress. And

it's an interesting pandemic world that we're

into. So I guess we should probably start things

off. How is everybody managing so far? I don't

even know how many weeks we're into this. right

now. I do. Is it like five weeks now? At least.

I was going to go see, let me look up my calendar

because I have, I know exactly when this started

because I was going to go see. You were going

to see Bloodshot. The day that they canceled

all theaters and closed everything down. It was

either Bloodshot or My Spy, wasn't it? It was

both same day. Yeah. So it was the, I was going

to go see it Tuesday, the 10th of March. And

that's when everything closed. There had been

some precautions earlier where people were distancing

themselves since about the fifth is when, at

least in Canada, I don't know when, like the

States I think came later, but I think it was

Thursday or Friday, like the fifth or sixth is

when things started. Cause I had taken my mom

to go see onward on Sunday, the first, and you

know, within three or four days, that's when

things started really. move fast. And I believe

it was the Friday or Saturday, six or seven is

when the news came on. They're like, Hey, things

are happening real fast. Expect major changes.

And it was Monday night. I was like, you know

what, I'm going to avoid, uh, going to the movie.

So I canceled my tickets and within six hours,

they said, Oh, don't worry. You're going to get

your money back anyway, because we're closing

all theaters. I think, well, at least in the

States it's been. there hasn't been kind of an

overall strategy with how things have been working.

But at least for me here in Michigan, I work

for Michigan State University in my like real

life job. And they closed up shop about a month

ago. I think this is week four now that we're

all supposed to be working from home and, you

know, okay. But I don't think the theater's closed

when I... had to work from home. There was still

stuff going on and then finally they closed it

up maybe a week into this, so like three weeks

ago. So it's been really scattershot depending

on where you are in the states as far as I know.

Of course, I only really know what's happening

here and the silliness that was at the Capitol

last week. Anyway, yeah. Well, correct me if

I'm wrong, because, you know, we're seeing the

news, like we see our own, we also see American

news. It's not the same, like here, I'll give

you an example. In Canada, the provinces have

a lot of rights of their own, but in general,

when the federal government says it's time to

close up, it's only a formality that they ask

the leaders of each province to comply, because

it's sort of expected that they do. And there

are powers they can draw, like papers and everything,

if they can force the governments in the provinces

to shut down. If they chose to, they haven't

had to. But from what I've seen in the states,

there's a lot of powers that the federal government

doesn't actually have unless they were to, I

guess, enact a whole bunch of new laws to basically

force the states to shut down. Yeah, basically

the states have most of the rights here. Unless

it directly contradicts something that the federal

government puts out. But as you probably can

tell from the news, the US government, the federal

government isn't very useful in all of this.

So the states are generally the ones that are

calling the shots. And the feds basically change

their mind every four minutes. So you don't really

know what the hell's going on with them anyway.

Uh, so yeah, each state basically can call the

shots up until the point where, uh, yeah, the

con Congress to do something or the president,

like they would have, like what they have to

declare some sort of like wartime measures or

something to, or find some old loophole in the

law to like take over or something. I mean, I'm

sure there's like six or seven different ways

that the federal government can do it. Honestly,

you know, I'm not, I'm not a governmental expert.

to be perfectly fair. I know more than most Americans

do, which is frightening, but yeah, there's a

few ways that they can go about it, but it's

whether it would actually work because it would

have to end up being ratified by the Congress,

and Congress being the way it is, obviously it's

dysfunctional as well. You guys have all those

crazy people that join their private militias

that would then say, this is it, the government's

coming for us. Well, they say that anyway, no

matter what's going on. I mean, they're the same

groups that talk about chemtrails or 5G networks

spreading coronavirus. I mean, there's crazy

people in Canada too, I'm sure. So I'm not shitting

all over. Oh, no, no. Yeah, there is a bit of

a cultural difference in that generally here.

regardless of if it's the conservative government

or it's a liberal government that's in power,

when the government says these are actions that

have to take place, generally almost everybody

agrees with it, just does it. Yeah, and basically

everyone says if they don't agree with the person

in charge or if they don't understand the problem,

they're just going to rail against it. So here,

it seems at least to me that most people just

don't understand the problem. that are the ones

that are out there protesting because it's clear

that what they're protesting makes no sense like

to to what's going on. It has no basis either

in reality, law, or the science of this pandemic.

Yeah it seems to be like from what we see at

least from the media is that the people protesting

are protesting on principle. They're like I would

just say they're protesting on misinformation

not principle. There's a really good website

that deals with American politics in a fairly

nonpartisan way, and it's called FiveThirtyEight.

I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but

it's run by a guy named Nate Silver. And back

in, I think it's 2012, he basically predicted

the U .S. election down to the electoral vote.

And he's a big data analysis guy. But the group

of people that he works with goes in and really

analyzes why things are the way they are. And

they do a weekly or bi -weekly podcast. But yeah,

they were covering a lot of this. And they roundtabled

it and basically came to the conclusion that

it's effectively run by misinformation. a lot

of these protests. But yeah, we're getting into

politics and I'll start getting hate mail from

people. Yeah, the idea is just sort of to give

a perspective because we have two Canadians and

two Americans on here. The other thing is there

are misconceptions in the states about us. For

instance, universal health care. While the whole

country has universal health care, each province

handles it differently. So there isn't just one

governing body from the federal government that

handles it. That is a power that's given to the

provinces themselves. So in Ontario, where Mike

and I live, we have OHIP, the Ontario Health

Insurance Program. And that, you know, it's different

in each province with which what is covered for

each thing. But the general baseline is you never

have to pay for a doctor's appointment. You do

have to pay for medicine unless you're on disability,

welfare. or have a medical plan through work

or under the age of 19 that's covered and over

the age of 65 is covered. And it's very basic,

but it covers pretty much anything. So one of

the reasons why, you know, not just staying at

home and social distancing has helped us, what's

also helped us is that people are staying in

touch with their doctors. People are generally

on average healthier because we have regular

doctors appointments. We never have to worry

about... making a doctor's, you know, payment

for anything. So yeah, and I, and at least with

me, I have to constantly fight to deal with doctors.

And I mean, my, at least with me, I do foster

care. So that's taking care of a child that's

been removed from their home because of mistreatment

or something like that. You bring them in and

you treat them like your child, until either

the, their home situation changes for the better

and they can go back. or they age out of the

system. But since there's this weird scatter

shot system of health care in the US, your health

insurance that you may personally have is completely

different than the health insurance that the

child may have, even though the health insurance

the child may have may be through the state or

through the federal government. But all the restrictions

are completely different. So you have to you

have to weed your way through a new set of weird

guidelines and find doctors or specialists that

will see that child. Certain hospitals only accept

certain insurances, sort of thing too? Yeah.

And certain doctors won't accept a child on that

healthcare, but may see a child, a adult on that

healthcare, but not because they don't see children.

It gets really frustrating. It becomes convoluted,

but that's why we've seen... you know the numbers

have been released and yes in average the state

says about 10 times our population just you know

rounding a little bit uh but so you figure there

would be 10 times the cases that's not actually

the case we're looking in the 30 to 40 times

the cases of people getting it in the states

compared to us and it's not like we're spread

out that far we're our population is very dense

along the border that's where most of us live

about 90 of the population of canada is within

uh 100 miles of the border yeah Yeah, and we're

in population centers like, for instance, Ontario

has, I think it was 14 or 15 million people.

The state of New York has about 19 million. The

state of New York has 34 times the cases and

34 times the deaths that we have. And that includes

Toronto, which is a metropolitan area of five

and a half million, I believe now. So you see

people giving arguments like, oh, Canada. You

know, it's different because they're all rural.

Well, no, it's not the case. So we've handled

things differently, but there are misconceptions

both ways. So it's basically that background

now is out of the way. So we don't have to get

political about it. Just that we are handling

things a little differently. But in general,

our cultures are similar enough in population

geography. One of the other things to kind of

talk about the swing back to the topic as we've

now extensively covered background. One of the

first, I mean, obviously we saw what happened

with kind of movie theaters. One of the things

that is surprisingly an essential business according

to its governor, Rick DeSantis, I think his name

is for Florida, is the WWE. And at the end of

March, beginning of April, WrestleMania, I think

it was 36 Alex was held. Pirate themed, it was

in Tampa. to wrestlers beating the hell out of

each other to an empty arena and that was odd

to say the very least it was two nights of bizarre

bizarre entertainment and not long after or before

that we had baseball was shut down the NHL was

shut down the NBA, uh, which was kind of funny.

There was a guy who was joking about coronavirus,

who was licking everything in his locker room

and that didn't end too well for him. Yeah. And

then he got a stupid thing. So it's, if I, if

I was an American and I got it from him because

I was on his team, I'd sue him. He could be legally

liable for that under, under American law. I

was gonna say like, if somebody died, like say

a reporter or somebody working there dies because

they touched a microphone, they licked on purpose.

then it's like, well, say goodbye to any money

and any future gains you're ever going to have.

Yep, good luck. And it's like, because we were

recording in the beginning to mid -March a mini

season of the production that I work on. And

we were like, I mean, we disinfect anyway in

the... In the vocal booth, I mean, we have four

stations so that actors can sit there and play

the role. But we were disinfecting after every

person stepped away from the microphone and which

is just proper etiquette anyway. But we were

doing it, you know, to prevent people from getting

it, not to say, oh, well, I'm going to lick this

and purposely cough on this. And, you know, I

mean, I don't know, it's just some people just

are boneheaded about it. Like, I get it. It is

a nuisance and it's a thing that nobody wants

to deal with, but it's kind of the way of life

now at this point. So whether you like it or

not, it's kind of affected everything. Yeah,

yeah. The first things we noticed were obviously

like large sporting events and concerts and things

like that being shut down. I think... uh, where

everybody realized it got real real was at least

in Canada. We found out that like, uh, that Tim

Hortons was going to be a drive -through only

business. And we're like, what? I mean, we can't

even get our coffee in the morning. And that's

what all, that's what all, that's what all the

rural people that are, that live out, you know,

middle of the North that maybe thought that it's

not going to affect them because they're not

near the big cities when wait, you mean everywhere

in Canada, they're shutting down everything.

And it's like, yes. They're shutting down. Well,

I think it got really real here when they started

closing down conventions of all kinds and like

any kind of public gathering, any kind of conferences,

any kind of convention. And they're still canceling

things. And I mean, majority of things have been

canceled through, you know, the later part of

the year. But either way, it's still it's still

being impacted. I was. Oh, I was going to say

that I was telling everybody beforehand that

I do World War II reenacting and all the events

that we've been scheduled for the first part

of the year have been cancelled since we did

one event in early March, very early March, and

then everything else has been cancelled and all

the way through the end of July at this point.

Me and Alex obviously do the nerd news or the

twig kind of weekly show. So we started noticing

things because packs East happened at the end

of February. I was surprised that happened, but

several major exhibitors pulled out, especially

when they were promoting major products for,

um, an April launch such as resident evil three,

final fancy seven. And I think a few other big

developers pulled out the big notice to me was

that event happened, but exhibitors pulled out,

but then GDC, uh, pulled one Microsoft and I

think Activision. uh, pulled out and then they

canceled and, uh, refunded, um, everybody's hotels.

And I, and I said to Alex, do not be surprised

if Comic -Con gets canceled. And I remember Alex,

this conversation we had, I said, do not be surprised

if the Olympics get canned this year. Well, I

said, I said they were going to do one of two

things. This is, we were talking back in February,

even when this was, I said, this is too many

people from too many areas coming here. Cause

are going to that event, I said either they're

going to make a closed circuit where it's only

the athletes get to compete, there's not going

to be anybody in the audience, or they're going

to have to move it. The other thing was, I think

just before they cancelled all this stuff, I

got notification that they cancelled the move,

the Anime North, and I had actually just personally

pulled out of Toronto Comic Con because they

waited till the last second to cancel anything.

But a few of the events that I had press passes

to got pushed back to October later. See, that's

and that's the thing is I wonder how this is

going to affect it. Now, looking at Microsoft,

they've they've decided to do some of their conventions

or conferences mobile or digital only for the

next two years just as a precautionary. So do

you see more businesses doing that? What I could

see happening personally is I could see the conventions

going here. They could restrict the amount of

people that are coming to them, which will be

a factor, obviously. But let's say the building

that they were in held 10 ,000 people and they

sold 10 ,000 tickets. They may go, we're only

going to allow 5 ,000 people, but we're also

going to go to a larger venue. That, you know,

so people can be spaced out or they might section

it out or they might make a lot of these conventions

back to what they used to be trade persons only

and media only Which that could be interesting

Well, I was kind of I wasn't surprised when there

was a rumor floating around that E3 2020 was

going to be canceled and it's funny who broke

the news. It was a tweet from Devolver Digital

who's a pretty well -known And they said, and

I quote, cancel y 'alls E3 hotels and flights.

And then I think it was tech crunch or IO nine.

It was one of the other, it was one of those

two outlets reported later that yes, E3 2020

had been canceled. Um, a press release would

be issued within a day or. two days at most later.

And, um, it's since come out since then that

there is no plan from the ESA to put on some

event in June. Now that being said, I'm going

to future predict this. Something will happen

in June. There will be either a Nintendo direct

state of play, a Microsoft presentation, because

you know what? It costs money to cut together

a video and throw it up on YouTube. They got

tons of time. to do it, all they got to do is

bring Phil Spencer or the PlayStation guy or

Miyamoto in front of a green screen, talk 15

minutes, hire a team of editors and throw it

up online and do it that way. Cause I think the

E3 that we knew was move was moving more towards

a fan and influencer thing anyway, which I'm

not a huge fan of, but We're going to see a shift

towards that. If they do it again, or it'll be

digital, but I think if they do it again, it'll

be press only, and they'll not restrict which

press company can go there, but they might not

put on the big elaborate events. It might go

back to being simple stuff, like you're in conference

halls, we're going to show off some basic videos,

and then the digital experience is wherever it

goes to see the elaborate stuff. Yeah, I mean

I could I could definitely see that it's gonna

definitely impact a lot of the conferences and

conventions but as far as Like say your your

local comic shops or the movie theaters or any

of these these local businesses Do you see it

There's no chance of getting coronavirus from

a comic shop because half of them haven't had

anybody show up in five years to buy anything

anyway. As far as movie theaters go, I think

when they start to bring people back or when

they start to reopen, first of all, there's gonna

be two things. There's gonna be what the rest

of the world does, and then there's gonna be

whatever happens in America. So I'm only gonna

speak for what's happening in Canada and other

places. We're going to introduce things back,

businesses back to opening up in stages. So it'll

be like the first thing that will happen is every

store can open up again, but they're going to

have the restricted few people in a store at

a time, just like the grocery stores have right

now. Then it's going to be, we're going to lift

how many people can go into these stores slowly

and gradually. And then they'll start opening

up things like sporting stadiums and movie theaters.

Now with the movie theaters, what I can see them

doing, and they've already sort of talked about

it as most of the screens hold two to 300 people,

they might slash it and say, we can only have

a quarter of that in here at a time. And they'll

literally put, because when they were thinking

of doing before they were told to shut down was

putting caution tape across every other or every

two chairs, and then having one open chair, forcing

people to distribute themselves far enough where

they're not ever going to be within arm's reach

of touching anybody. So I can see that happening

where the movie industry is going to be hit pretty

hard in the theater industry for the next two,

probably two years or more. where they'll be

doing that. I think sporting events is the same

thing. They may sell only one out of every three

or four seats, unless it's an outdoor event where

you can spread yourselves out a little better.

The only industry right now that hasn't really

been hit is NASCAR. And that's because... Actually,

yeah, because they're doing all the online racing,

which... It turned out almost everybody in NASCAR,

not just... the drivers, but people on the teams,

people in the cameras, they all seem to have

really high -end computer rigs at home with driving

simulator software anyway, just that they practice

when they're at home. And they were able to basically

parlay that into playing digital races. Yeah.

Which is kind of astounding. Like they've got

people who act as they're like, um, as they're,

um, got a pit cruise. They've got, they've got

like, commentators doing actual kind of race

commentary. Now, there has been some controversy

that's happened with it. A fairly prolific guy

said something racially insensitive on his Twitch

stream. There have been guys who rage quit. It

was bad. It's like, Oh, buddy, remember, it's

not just your pit crew that can hear you saying

that now. Yeah, they're like, Hey, Rick, Or I

think that was his name. He's like, everybody

heard that. And he's like, Oh, everybody heard

you drop an end bomb live in front of like two

or 3 million people online, like television and

online. And it's like, Oh, no, it got. It got

bad and one of the other businesses that's been

affected to kind of go along that line is I'm

a guy who watches a lot of e -sports and the

Call of Duty League would go to various cities

in the United States. And this is the first year

that the Cod League has opened up franchises

in different cities like Toronto, Minnesota,

Chicago. Um, New York, I think has a team LA,

et cetera. And those franchises, you have to

buy in at like 20 or $30 million a piece. And

they fill venues with thousands of cod fans.

That all got thrown out because we were just

coming up to the first big invitational of the

year, I think. And that's now been thrown in

the district. I think everything is now played

online. That's a business that's been. affected

by this, which I don't know how they're going

to recover from this. It's Activision. They'll

throw money at it. So I think at least in with

my view of this, I think the biggest industry

that's going to be hit is obviously the the theaters.

I think. Theaters have been suffering for years

and years and years for various reasons. You

can make an argument that, well, the quality

of Hollywood films has been decreasing and that's

Dropbox office. People have been going home to

watch movies because they have great televisions

and sound systems. So you really don't need to

go to see movies in the theater anymore. You

can make a lot of other arguments. Regardless,

I think that this is going to put a really big

hurt on even the largest of the theater companies

like AMC. I don't see, at least in the US, I

don't see a lot of these theaters reopening.

Or if they do, it's going to be like, well, we'll

just open one or two of the screens and then

shut everything else down. There just won't be

a big demand because, I mean, you can just watch

these things at the house anyway. I think somebody

mentioned drive -through theaters. I think that

might be a thing. That might be a thing. Because

I actually do remember going to see movies in

a drive -through when I was very, very young.

And that was a neat experience. Michigan has

a couple of them. Actually, Flint has two drive

-in theaters, or did at one point. Yeah. We had

a whole bunch in Ontario, and I think there's

only one left. Is it the Mustang still around,

Mike? Is it Burlington? I think so. The one in

Guelph, the Mustang. I think there's another

one near Burlington and I think there's one in,

I think there's one in Thorold in St. Catharines

or most of Thorold. And there is one in Guelph

where you live. So there's three or four at least,

but it used to be a lot more. I've never been,

but I had friends that would go, even in the

late 90s, early 2000s, and they would do - I

spent so much time. Like a carload was 30 bucks

and that was filled the car with people and you

got to see three movies overnight. Or they do

what was Dusk Till Dawns on weekends and it was

fantastic. I'll say that I think the reason those

will be successful isn't because, oh, well, you

know, we want to go see movies in a movie theater.

It's we still we still want to have a movie theater

experience of a sort, but we also want to be

able to seal ourselves off in the car so we don't

have to breathe the same air as everybody else.

Yeah. And especially with people think about

it. You turn your radio or whatever to a specific

frequency and that's how you listen to it. But

now they're at a point where they broadcast here.

I was looking they broadcast and you can pick

it up. with little Bluetooth receivers and things

that they hand out. So you could actually connect

like your surround sound system in your car.

You could have quadraphonic sound if you really

wanted to. And then you've got the, you get that

old school experience and then people are itching

to go and do things. So just having it there.

Right. It's outside. So I mean, in the end you

can sit on the hood of your car. You can get

out into the environment at least and not be

concerned about being too close to somebody else.

And that might be just the thing for the movie

industry. Hey, open up a big drive -in. Yeah,

it might be kind of old school 1970s tech, but

people might pay for that now just to get out.

Well, it'll also maybe force the industry to

move forward. Like it may be 70s tech, but we

have, like locally in my city, we have one of

the three, like there's three big companies that

make projectors, Barco, I forget what the other

one is, Christie Digital. Christie Digital is

here. And they make high -end 3D projectors,

all that sort of stuff. And they were experimenting

with laser technology and all this. They would

be a reason to make, they can go, OK, now we're

going to have to build new tech to broadcast

on a 300 -foot screen. And it has to be visible

in low light. It could be something that forces

innovation too. It could, and I think that would

be good for the movie industry overall. I don't

know, I've never been a huge fan since, well,

okay, when I was a teenager, I loved going to

the theater, even though the theater technology

at the time was crap. I'm saying like mid 90s,

early 90s, right? I remember the summer of 92,

that's when Terminator 2 came out, if I remember

correctly. I think I went to the theater. at

least three times a week for an entire summer.

Yeah, same here. I mean, yeah, but since then,

even though the movie technology, like the theater

technology has been getting better and better

seats have been more and more comfortable. It's

just been like, well, why do I really need to

go see X film? It's not really needed. I don't

need to see it. The other certain films that

are kind of like spectacle films that you do

want to see on a big screen. I was telling my

wife that, yeah, when James Bond finally comes

out, I'd love to see that on a big screen because

I love watching James Bond on a big screen. There's

something about sitting in a room and sure you

can have audio, I would say now as good, if not

better than a theater and then most theaters,

unless you're going to see something like an

IMAX. But there's something about having your

entire field of vision be the screen. That I

like so I'm I don't like sitting like super close

like the front row where you have to like lean

back But I am the guy that sits like, you know,

I sit a little off -center Because I don't like

sitting directly in the middle But I like to

have it so that I don't see the border of the

screen But I see like just to the edge of where

all the action would be Because there's just

something about seeing it and then when they

have like really good base and feeling it in

your chest Yeah, I When I went to the theater,

I particularly went to the dead center of the

theater. And I kind of learned where that was

because of Mike Powers, when I would go into

the Friday night premieres and the IMAX. But

no, I mean, I enjoyed the theater and I enjoyed

it more when I was younger and before I had kids.

My wife and I used to go a lot. But since having

kids, we really haven't gone. I mean, I can count

maybe on both hands the amount of times we've

gone to the theaters. Most of the time, we just

wait for it to hit streaming. And honestly, there's

nothing I absolutely have to see the minute it

hits theaters. And I think that's kind of a detriment

because there's so many to choose from nowadays.

So the drive -in option actually could be something

nice to help kind of break it down to the big

films and then you can see the other ones on

all the streaming services and I don't necessarily

know if $20 a month is or a movie is going to

really pick up because I myself I'll just wait

till it's free. Well I don't when it comes to

paying for it that way like when they were in

Canada they wanted us to pay I think it was 25

or 29 bucks to do that first rental thing and

I was like but they're only offering it in 1080p

and half the time it's stereo when for 30 bucks

I can buy a 4k blu -ray that's an HDR with like

7 .1 surround why would I you know the pricing

model is off there if they want people to rent

these movies at home they're gonna have to make

the price of rental cheaper than it was to go

theaters because when you're going to theater

you can justify oh I'm seeing it on a 200 foot

screen with these reclining chairs and really

good sound and I'm getting the, you know, curved

screen gigantic thing experience or seeing it

in IMAX. When you're at home, you know, they're

like, oh, we want you to pay that much? No, no.

I won't pay to watch a movie, to rent a movie

ever more than $5. You just, I'll just never

do it because it can't cost more than it costs

when I used to go to the video store and rent

a DVD. Well, and that's the thing is the cost

to rent it for $20 is I could go buy the DVD

or the Blu -ray when it's technically quote unquote

theaters. Yeah. So, and I could own it. And like

if they're charging you 20 bucks for a carload

to go see it in the drive -in, the one thing

you have to think about too, because you've got

two small kids, right? Is you don't have to worry

about wrangling them. If they're making noise,

they're not going to bug anybody in the next

seat. You could just tell your kids, shut up

or whatever, but you're actually, it's like you're

watching it privately, but you're in public,

which is an interesting idea. So you probably

would get your money's worth. Plus there's nobody

to stop you from sneaking in your own snacks

when you come to drive in and bring your own

food. So you could just, you could bring whatever

food you have, if you have special dietary restrictions

and all that. So I could see that being popular.

What I think is going to be harder than the movie

industry, concerts more than anything. Yeah.

Well, I had one industry that I thought and it's

something maybe Aaron, you could speak a little

bit about too, is I've got a lot of friends in

the RPG, uh, industry and they rely on distributors

like diamond to get their books out to people.

And with a lot of warehouses shut down right

now, you want to play something like DND. That's

not a problem. You can get that from Amazon.

You want to play something that's a little bit

off the beaten path, like say Star Trek, for

example, you might get it through Amazon. You

might not. Um, I got some friends in some other

companies and they're worried right now. Uh,

there was a big article came out as of this recording

would have been about two weeks ago, um, talking

about people in the RPG industry are wondering,

will their companies survive this? And if you

want to support people, they're suggesting you

go to companies like drive through our, our RPG

and whatnot, which is digital, which is great,

but people do want physical as well. So there's

a lot of writers, artists, and designers that

are out of work right now. And obviously RPGs,

you can social distance and still play via Discord

or Zoom or Google Hangouts, Skype, et cetera.

That's an industry that I didn't really think

of was going to get get hit hard. OK, so from

my experience, you know, I only know things from

two companies and I'm, you know, I'm not going

to say anything that's. privileged or whatever.

I can say that, yeah, there's distributors that

have kind of shut down. So it's made physical

copies of things difficult to get to customers.

So that means income is obviously, logically

speaking, income is going to be more difficult

to get for these companies. Therefore, logically

speaking, I don't have any firsthand knowledge

of this, but logically speaking, it means that

there would be less money available for other

projects to pay artists, writers, developers,

et cetera, et cetera, for more products. That's

just speaking logically. I don't have any firsthand

experience with that. All I know is that because

the distributors have been down, I know it's

been difficult to get some Star Trek books for

people. Um, I mean, obviously I would also recommend

going to like drive through RPG and, you know,

buying the PDF and physical copy if you can.

And you know what, if the physical copy isn't

available, they'll still ship it out when they

get it. Do that, get the PDF, support the company

that you want to support, support the game that

you want to support and, uh, do your best and

understand that these circumstances are, are,

you know, awful, but everyone's doing what they

can. I mean, I know that there's products out

there that I've, I've worked on in the past.

eight months and it might be for a company I've

worked for before it might not be but I don't

know when it'll come out and it's I would think

that it's because of this but I don't know now

now just a quick question here too I was thinking

um like with academia what's how is it going

to affect universities and colleges because is

everything going to go purely online forever

because Online that that could honestly be online

because honestly there's when I went to college

there was a lot of classes that I would have

just preferred were online based on the amount

of work or What what you could accomplish? No,

like I took like when I went to school again

about six years ago or so A lot of stuff for

business was like negotiations classes, things

you had to be in the room with somebody to work

out. But my brother went to the University of

Waterloo for computer science, and so he still

gets alumni letters from them. And they said

that going forward into next year, they may not

have any lectures in the actual school. So in

my experience, obviously, I have said that I

worked for Michigan State University. I actually

do climate change science. So I research climate

change. So I can speak to MSU at least. And they

shut down classes fairly soon after things started

getting bad in March. We were still working as

employees in our offices up until about a week

after that. And then they said, hey guys, just

don't come in. We don't want to do that anymore.

But up until that point, what the idea was, and

I still think it is right now because I'm technically

not a professor, I'm staff, I'm a researcher,

that the professors were still told to do online

courses for as much as they could to finish out

this year. Like, all right, we understand that

some of your courses are kind of hands -on. Like,

if you're going to a soils class, you know, you

kind of need to study soils with your eyes and

hands, or you're drawing a soil sample or taking

a soil sample. Can't really do that virtually,

right? But do what you can for the students.

Finish this out and make as much allowance as

you can for it. Now, as of next year, well, I

don't know. I'd have to talk to my boss, who

actually is a professor at the university. But

at least with my idea of it right now, it's still

going to be, if you can teach it online, do it.

Otherwise, we're going to have to have a physical

class, which would make coming to the university

kind of weird. Like why I want to move to East

Lansing. It would also make me as, let's say

I was a prospective student go, why am I having

to pay as much tuition if it's all going to be

delivered online? Yeah. Yeah. There's going to

be a whole argument there. Same with public schools.

Like it's right now, at least like in our province

in Ontario, the teachers have been on strike

off and on pretty much the whole year. do dealing

with the government. And then this happened.

We're going to have potentially because the kids

aren't going back to school now. What do you

do? Do you think technically you have to fail

everybody because they didn't receive the education

required to go onto the next year. They have

been pushing online education with that. There

is a plan in place with our education minister.

There is no graduation plan in place. even if

people have been homeschooling there's been no

testing involved there's no exams there's no

there's no like you're going to you're basically

you've had half a year of no education in most

cases okay so so here in michigan i at least

you know there there was school up until early

march right um what the what i have read now

that that came from the state government is that

students that were going to uh graduate that

they were on course to actually passing their

grade or graduating high school, they will still

do that. They will still go up the grade. They

will still graduate from high school. And that's

that. Right. But if the student was on course

to not passing, you know, OK, we're sorry that

you can't try to make up for it in the past,

like the last two months of school, but you are

on track to failing. So you're going to be held

back. That kind of sucks. That creates an issue

of is there enough room for all the students

because you're going to have basically you know

at bare minimum let's say 50 percent of each

grade repeating certain classes or grades entirely.

It's not going to be 50 percent the the statistics

that I saw was that because of this whole we're

going to be on if you were on track then you

will graduate means that it was about 90 to 95

percent of the students would actually graduate

and move on which was actually higher than it

normally would be. It seems weird, but... Fair

enough. Because here we have a different thing.

There are certain provincial mandated exams that

you must pass to graduate. It's the same here.

It's the same here. But they just said, hey,

look, we understand that this is kind of a crazy

situation and we just can't have these tests.

you know if there was going to be a test it's

just not going to happen. The only issue there

then too is when you're submitting like in the

states I know you have a different method you

have your SATs or whatever right here when you

apply to go to university or college you submit

a certain set amount of grades from certain classes

well you may not have those grades to submit

they're going to have to change the way they

admit students they think for the next year.

Yeah, and I don't think it's going, that's not

going to make much difference in the US just

because you can take an SAT or an ACT or the

GRE if you've already been in college and you're

trying to get into a graduate program. I don't

think any of that's going to really make a difference.

And if you're in the States, you don't even really

have to take an SAT if you've gone to a community

college previously. and you just have grades

from community college, which is kind of like

your first two years. That's actually what I

ended up doing. I went to a community college

for two years, never had to take the SAT. Well,

I didn't. Our system, it's much more difficult

to get into the university than that. But yeah,

it's interesting how this is affecting that.

As far as public parks and that, I get the feeling

you're not going to have parks being as full.

You might have the initial start you have some

people that are going to be crazy and think,

oh, it's all over. So let's all gather. So like

people were doing in Florida, but I feel like

people are going to be more cautious. I think,

you know, out of everything that happens here,

if you know, in an ideal situation, everything

went back to normal in quotes, not normal as

in like, it's never going to really be normal,

but as normal as it could be. I think what's

going to be much more common is you're going

to see a large portion of the population, maybe

forever. Wearing masks out in public like they

do in Asia Because it's already here like people

are doing it anyway even in areas where there's

not you know Yeah, and you're gonna see but that's

that's gonna be a fashion statement now is people

are gonna You know buy masks to match what they're

wearing I think that's actually a very good observation.

I think the no shaking hands thing and what are

you going to do to greet somebody and not shake

their hand? The whole, hey, let's give the Vulcan

salute. That works for me for many reasons. What

are you going to do? Are you going to do the

elbow bump? What's your choice? I think a lot

of it's going to be bowing. That might come back

into play. It'll be bowing a formal nod. I have

two solutions for that. Honestly, as far as all

joking aside, I think bowing, like a formal nod,

and perhaps even an informal wave will probably

become the more common thing to happen. What

I do for mine, obviously, since I don't get out

a whole lot, but I talked about this with my

wife recently. Um, I do the Wakanda forever,

uh, as my handshake. And if I want to say bye,

I do a dab. So, so I'm lit as, as the kids might

say, I've been, I've been live long and prospering

everybody. but that it just works for me it has

like double meaning because i'm jewish and that's

actually you know the reason letter nimor used

that symbol was because it's a a jewish letter

it's the representation of a jewish letter so

uh you use it in prayer and you actually use

you use those how your how your fingers split

you're supposed to cover your eyes um it's so

you don't witness the glory of the uh angels

that are coming in during prayer, blah blah blah.

It's a really long explanation that I probably

won't explain very well. I remember him saying

that's how they came up with it, because in that

episode where he's with the woman, they had to

taper fingers to do it. I'll say this to that,

Aaron, your response is so much more dignified.

I do mine because I'm an idiot who pretends to

be funny. And I was going to test to this. I'm

a moron, but I just like to be like eat and I

just dabbed right now. But you know, but like

I said, in all seriousness, I think bowing will

become a more common thing to happen or maybe

not like a full on like, like, you know, Japanese

bow or like where they have the certain etiquette

they have to follow, but how long it's supposed

to be and so on and so forth. But I could see

some sort of formal, you know, body movement

being the greeting of flossing. Yes, oh my god,

please no, but you're right. Yeah howling or

nodding help that makes that makes a lot of sense

Now I want to prosper yeah, but I wonder how

it's gonna like how it's gonna affect things

like I mentioned briefly concerts and with for

most concerts you are shoulder to shoulder so

oh, yeah, I think that the like They're going

to have to find ways to make more money and they

can't just charge more for the tickets. Uh, I

think they're gonna have their concerts are going

to be more and more outside. I think you're going

to find less concerts in concert halls and they're

going to be more outdoor events. Well, one of

the big concerts that got canceled this year

was Coachella. That's huge. Cause can you imagine

if there is, um, a flare up at Coachella? Well,

you're thinking the States think bigger, think

Europe. I think those metal concerts like Wacken

or any of the ones that happen in Germany, they're

getting like 50, 100 ,000 people to show up over

the course of five or six days at these big European

festivals. It's over. They're never going to

have them again. It just won't happen. The reason

I'm saying metal concerts is the hygiene isn't

always the greatest of them anyway. You know

what I mean? Against each other and yeah, it's

we've got that aspect. You've got the aspect

of their like for here's the question that nobody's

asked Mike What's gonna happen to the gathering?

What's gonna happen? I'm sorry, but pouring Faygo

on yourself isn't gonna get rid of the virus

would somebody think of the juggalos Steve Can

you please call the episode this? That should

be your greeting I think it's going to affect

even smaller things too. You might not have as

many, you know, little carnivals show up here

in their state fairs. Like there's going to be

a lot of things that change up in the next year

or two. And, you know, for everybody that thinks

it's going to go back to a hundred percent normal,

there's going to be some hefty restrictions done.

And it will probably be state by state and in

Canada, it'll be province by province, but. Overall,

I think a lot of the open market type events

aren't going to be around the same way. I think

for a lot of these businesses that might have

had their big whole thing was going to conventions,

they're probably going to have to start changing

things up like, oh, it's going to be a lot more

digital conventions, or where I think they just

push back the blues festival in Kitchener here.

Some of it. I'm not 100 % sure. They haven't

cancelled it completely, but some people have

said they're not showing up because they're from

the States and they can't. To give a bit of context,

to give some context, the Blues Festival here

draws a couple hundred thousand people. They

had Buddy Guy and some other people that were

top tier, traditional blues artists. It's actually...

worldwide known. And the city would be, our city

has, or the region has about 500 ,000 people,

but we would get about 100 ,000 tourists for

the Blues Festival. And there's talk that they're

like, well, we're just going to push it back

a little bit and we're not going to announce

that it's canceled. It's like, it happens in

like a month and a half. It's not happening.

Like the one thing that I grew up doing, I would

go every year, every summer to Oshkosh to the

big air show in Wisconsin and That's that's an

event. I'm not they haven't really talked about

what's going to happen with that this year and

you think oh an air show Well, that's a couple

thousand people know Oshkosh is routinely 600

,000 people it is insane The whole region around

Oshkosh, like three quarters of their income

for the year comes from the week of Oshkosh.

It's that much. Is it like the Kentucky Derby

and the amount of numbers of people sort of thing?

I mean, well, 600 ,000. And it's all around an

airport, like a single airport. And it's not

a big airport, but it does become like the world's

most busy airport. for that week. There are so

many planes going up. The military comes in.

Like when I was growing up, the Soviet Air Force

flew in at one point and they had a big show.

It's insane and it's wall -to -wall people for

three miles worth of air strip that bends around

two different ways. It's insane. There's no way

that it can happen. No way. And that means this

whole area, this Fox River Valley of Wisconsin,

it's just going to be wrecked because of this

one thing. Well, Toronto's already, they haven't

officially canceled, but the talk is they're

canceling the C &E, the Canadian National Exhibition,

which in, there's an excess of multiple millions

of people that attend per year. So that's, that's

done. Like they're not going to run that, but

they're not officially saying that because they're

trying to stagger out the amount of things that

they canceled because they don't want it to hit

the economy worse than it already has. But like

it's the biggest festival slash I guess, you

know, provincial fair in Canada. It's not going

to be run. Yeah, there's a lot of other like

car shows things I think what you're gonna see

more of is digital like let's say there's all

these vendors that made a whole lot of money

on you know off these events you're probably

gonna get these like virtual tours where it's

like here's your your thing where you can sell

and it basically would let you buy stuff from

a virtual tour of I don't know how it would be

set up there's gonna be I think Etsy and websites

like that are gonna be on the rise even more

now because a lot of these individual sort of

niche sort of businesses can't really run their

main business, which is going on the weekends

to these events. So I think there's going to

be an uptick significantly on like individual

small businesses online. Yeah, the other thing

with that is, is I don't know how that's going

to affect, for instance, like subscription models

of things like Patreon or just people funding

not only the individual creators through something

like Patreon or through Patreon, but also streaming

services in general. Yeah, and the video games

industry right now has been affected because

it's still, for the most part, primarily a physical

media. industry and that's what people were sort

of expecting. I didn't realize until very recently

because of all this that how bad the American

infrastructure is for high speed. Because I've

had gigabit now three or four years. We got high

speed internet when I was a kid in like 1998

or 1999 and we had, I think it was six megabit

internet then. you know, when dial -up was still

popular, I didn't realize that there's a lot

of my friends in the States that still have one

or two megabit total now. And I'm like, what?

How is that even possible? Like, it's the fastest

it goes in our city. And I'm like, it's the fastest

it goes. Like, and I'm not in like, again, a

super huge city, but we've had gigabit at least

for businesses here for about 10, 15 years. So,

and then I... do some research online. I'm like,

oh, most of Canada has at least a minimum of

20 or 30 megabit internet. That's available in

some format or another, unless you're way out

in the boonies. So this might force the industry

to move telecommunications to finally replace

and upgrade their lines. Because if people aren't

going to be buying physical media for a lot of

different things, they're going to be relying

on streaming services for gaming for basically

all their media consumption. They just don't

have the infrastructure to handle it in the states

Do you think that the the high -speed internet

companies should be more of a utility over? Yeah

There was a necessity now. It's not this it's

not just a luxury It's something everyone needs

it was brought up up here to make it To make

it there were a couple options the talk was to

make it that it's just to require It's a right

to have internet and what that would mean is

anywhere in any uh, municipality, public city

would have, you'd have access to wifi at a bare

minimum speed without any barriers, meaning you

don't have to sign up. You don't have to be a

citizen. You don't have to do anything. You just

can connect that went to, you know, it went to,

uh, get ratified and then Rogers and Bell shut

it down, which are Rogers being the biggest cable

company in Canada that basically bought out all

the video stores also bought up. 50 % of our

television stations and movie companies and they're

generally pretty evil. I just happen to have

their internet too though. And then Bell being

the oldest telephone company in the world. And

they own basically all the DSL lines and now

they're getting a monopoly on fiber. They didn't

want it because that would mean that they would

have less customers potentially. I guess was

their reason for it. They wanted more control

over it. They had to make some concessions though.

When they when they turned down that bill they

had to make it so that they allowed reselling

of their lines at cheaper rates So that's why

we have about 10 or 15 different companies. They

use their lines But you get a cheaper rate, which

is funny. You can have internet from a third

party going through Rogers That's cheaper than

Rogers will give it to you personally because

the government mandates it so whatever but Certain

cities the city of Guelph Mike where you live

in has Wi -Fi anywhere in the downtown area for

free So even if you're homeless and you happen

to have you know an old phone or a Tablet device

that was donated or you got it from a thrift

store. You can have the internet And you can

plug in a public charging stations our city is

like that here too, but that it's not perfect

There was talk because Google moved its headquarters

in Canada to where I live Google wanted to give

away Wi -Fi internet and give away fiber internet

for free to any citizen that lived here. And

that was shut down by Rogers and Bell as well

because they said it would be pushing them out

of the city. And they're like, no, we're going

to give you the option to have either. And they're

like, no. So it's been contentious, but that

is the eventual goal is to have a bare minimum.

It won't be gigabit for everybody, but the idea

would be somewhere in the realm of one to one

and a half megabit internet just to get your

email. You can make phone calls, you can do video

chat, the bare minimums that you could do business

or work. Because reality is, if you don't have

the internet, you can't really do anything. So

I don't know if that would work in the States,

but it might still, with all this going on, push

the telecommunications industry to push for higher

bandwidth and just basically more throughput.

Because I'm imagining that whatever systems they

have in place are being hammered with traffic

right now. Yeah, I know working from home right

now. It's not the greatest or the most fun as

far as having to access servers or Upload or

download things because I'm primarily dealing

with media and decently large files It's not

the most fun to have to deal with the internet

well the big thing is slower than what You know,

obviously I pay for a decent amount, but it's,

it's still like, it should go faster. I'll give

a bit of background. Like I signed up for a two

year business plan when they had a deal last

year, uh, which the only reason I'm with Rogers,

uh, but I pay $79 a month. So Canadians, that's

59 American for gigabit. So I get a thousand

meg down, but it's only 50 mega. Which is where

I'm feeling it now when I'm working remotely

and sending, you know, large data files. So that

means I uploaded about four to five megabytes

per second. I can download it 110. So, you know

what I mean? And I'm thinking that is still,

you know, that disparity in upload speed has

always been there for the residential and even

most business lines. So if you have in the States,

let's say a five meg down, you might only get

like half a meg up. which is what makes the streaming

or copying data or uploading to Google Drive

for sharing business work hard. When I worked

at a tech company that did GPS data and a bunch

of stuff, now we had gigabit down and up, which

was hilarious. We would have, let's say, the

Google Cloud, and we could send five gigs of

data, and it would be up there in a minute or

less, which was hilarious. You know, that's for

business lines. We need to, like, we need to

improve the speed of simultaneous up -down for

internet. Otherwise, if we get hit with another

pandemic like this, we'll be even worse for the

entire infrastructure. Yeah. And basically all

the cracks that had been there for years and

people had warned about in every industry, you

know, not just tech industry, but from everything,

from even the healthcare system in the state's

education. to transportation, to everything.

Everything that might have had little hairline

fractures, now the water is seeping through.

And if things aren't fixed this time around,

if they fix it now and go, OK, hey, great, the

pandemic's over. If they just ignore this and

keep moving forward the way that they've always

done it, the next time the dam's going to burst.

Yep, I totally anybody else Crickets I like computers.

Did your computer stop working Michael? No, it's

like obviously it's an essential service we need

it and I hope things I hope and pray for good

things to happen. So we'll have to wait and see.

I'm trying to think of any other entertainment

industries that are maybe affected by this. I

know some of my podcasting podcasting has been

affected. OK, how so? It's there. It's twofold.

There's there's the downside that overall listening

has has gone down unless it's something COVID

related or fiction. The fiction podcast has picked

up massively even seen that there's been a percentage

of decrease in our listeners But then certain

episodes get a lot more so it's like it just

it kind of depends But but also because everyone

is at home and nobody has anything better to

do And everybody has all this equipment. They

bought any way for work or otherwise or communicating

with family or whatever Apple had released that,

um, they'd surpassed the 1 million podcast mark.

Um, and it said that, uh, what, what is it? Um,

I don't know if anybody's familiar with Daniel

J. Lewis. Um, he's, he's a well renowned award

winning podcast or whatever. Um, but anyway,

the actor, Daniel D. Lewis, is that what you

said? No, Daniel J. Lewis. He's a, he's a podcaster.

I have no idea who that is anyways. I follow

a lot of the old timers of podcasters. Anyways,

he had this pet project that he was doing of

calculating it. Anyways, he had a contest recently,

it was about two months ago, I think he put this

out, saying... You went a free service or something

that he provides if you can guess the date that

Apple Surpasses 1 million podcasts and at the

time that I guess that I think they had eight

hundred and sixty something And I guess that

it was April 17th and I won and I was just kind

of like yeah It looks like a solid number But

I guess during because of kovat even more podcast

launched than normal I guess during the, the

normal 30 day period, 50 ,000 podcasts launch

every 30 days. Um, during the last 30 days, they'd,

uh, welcomed more than 82 ,000 new podcasts by

comparison. That's quite a bit. And out of those

five of them will be celebrities that get millions

of listens and everybody else will fizzle out.

Well, about 50 % of those are probably celebrities,

but, um, like for instance, uh, There's a Star

Trek Voyager review podcast with Robert Duncan

McNeil and Garrett Wang. Yeah, that I'm looking

forward to actually. Yeah. So that that one I'm

actually looking forward to just because it's

two guys that were actually on the set talking

about it. So but a lot of them are just doing

it because one, there's nothing else to do to

like a lot of the TV hosts are doing it or news

anchors or people that have Just something in

general that they they want to do but they have

no outlet otherwise well now because They they

all the late -night shows are basically video

podcasts that they're doing And it what I love

is it when it shows how Bad at tech that they

are like I'm like, oh You mean our videos and

our audio sounds better than theirs because they've

never had to do anything like this on their own.

They've always had a crew miking them up and

doing everything. So it's kind of humbling and

humanizing to a lot of the late night hosts.

So I feel like that's made people go, Hey, if

they're able to do that with just a webcam and

a microphone, maybe I can do it too. And that's

the funniest thing in the world to me is. Seeing

seeing all this just play out There's there was

this guy Evo Terra. He says he had said something

a couple weeks ago about Podcasters, you know

more or less are still gonna be around but the

these broadcasters that are trying to make it

Look as amateur as possible more or less to make

try and make podcasters look bad He says don't

worry. They'll get out of the lane soon enough

Because there's no reason for them to go back

because just just look at like for look at Joe

Rogan's Like he the dude has broadcast quality

like you could put that on regular TV and it

would look fine Why is it that his cheapy podcast

looks better than something that like? CBS is

putting out. It doesn't make any sense unless

they're purposely not providing the right amount

of hardware, or it makes it funny to me if it's

a matter of the internet at this celebrity that's

worth $100 million home isn't good enough to

stream at better quality. Because you would figure

that when they're recording that they're recording

it. locally and sending the files over, but it

seems like they're streaming it to somebody across

the country who is then trying to edit it on

the fly. There is one show that looks particularly

bad. And, um, I watched the John Oliver show

weekly and he highlighted the Wendy Williams

show this past week. My God, this, this is a,

this is a woman who obviously has money. She

has a production team, et cetera, et cetera.

Her show looks atrocious. You know what it looks

like? It looks like a live, remember when internet

television was a thing on like before Justin

TV, before the streaming, when they were trying

it. It looks like a real media video file streaming

at 12 frames per second. What's funny is this

guy, Evo Terra, that I follow, he does various

tidbit, like 10 -minute podcasts and stuff. He

says, broadcasters recording from home have lost

their professional sheen and are encroaching

into podcasters' claimed authentic space. He

says, since we mastered at -home production years

ago, does this make podcasters the new professionals?

I love that out of all of them, Conan O 'Brien

looks the same because he has one of those faces

where no matter how much makeup you put on, he

looks the same. His show, I've tried one, is

actually watchable. It's still good because you

can really tell who needs a lot of writers and

needs an audience just to be funny and who doesn't.

You mean like all the late night show hosts?

Yeah, except for Conan. His show is actually

legitimately funny still. I was like, whoa, how

is it? Oh, because he's actually funny. And he's

actually been a writer on Saturday Night Live

and other shows. Yeah, like The Simpsons and

like Roseanne and other things. So like you have

somebody who actually has experience and is okay

with just clowning around with his friend online.

You know, that's, that's cool. But that Wendy

Williams one, it really, it feels like watching

a live stream cam from way back. The only other

industry I can think of like to round out how

the media has been affected is, and this is something

that Birdman can attest to. We talked about it

on our show a few times with some of the news

articles that come out. The only industry that's

booming in all of this is the adult industry.

Actually. Yeah. I was about to say, like, because

a lot of performers do stuff on Cam Soda and

Chatterbait and Pornhub and now OnlyFans has

opened up as an avenue. A lot of these adult

performers, they can do stuff at home and a lot

of adult companies such as Pornhub have really

stepped up to the plate. I know when Italy was

experiencing super high unfortunate death tolls,

they were opening Pornhub premium memberships

up to the entire country saying, you know what?

We've realized times are tough. Everybody is

stressed out right now. This is our small way

to contribute back. And I know there was, I think

Pornhub donated a lot of PPE equipment to New

York when things are really bad. And regardless

of whether or not you're somebody who agrees

that the, you know, that you think the porn industry

is good or it's healthy or it's again, or you're

against it because you're have a different set

of morals blah blah what you can say about them

is uh they're innovative they're innovative they've

pushed the industries different industries forward

uh they do a lot of charity work regardless of

whether or not you want you'd ever consume their

content uh but the big thing is they were the

most prepared industry for this happening because

the whole idea of video streaming on the internet

was pioneered by that industry in the 90s. So

when you talk about, you know, high quality internet,

like a lot of these performers have dedicated

pipelines. They're paying like a thousand dollars

a month to have dedicated up down speeds to their

home. So they have the infrastructure to have

super high speed data, uh, data rates for their

home use. They have high end four or $5 ,000

in some cases, prosumer cameras. hooked up. They

have an editing suite on their own. They were

already broadcasting in up to VR, even sometimes,

or 4K. They're an industry that has all the equipment

that they were either frowned upon or joked upon

by the regular media industry. And they're more

prepared with better technology than CBS, NBC,

ABC. I actually, uh, I have something to add

to this because I watch a lot of, uh, like Vegas

kind of logs or Vegas podcasts I listen to. And

it turns out like the adult industry in Vegas

is both benefiting and is hurting because of

it. And the hurt is that obviously in -person

type things are not going to be a thing for a

while. So they were talking about how, you know,

the brothels and things were actually going to

be shut down for a while. But they said the online

stuff, the streaming stuff is booming. And a

lot of the sex workers are actually doing online

sex work now. and trying to expand their business

that way. It's very strange that this was a big

part of this normal casino type broadcast that

I listened to. And all of a sudden there's 15

minutes on how these sex workers are actually

kind of innovating in that regard. Because I

wouldn't be surprised if the regular media industry

ends up looking at what they're doing to upgrading

their systems in the future, because Interestingly

enough, you'd think it was YouTube and other

streaming platforms that pushed to use different

video codecs and higher efficiency codecs for

streaming and decoding and video encoding and

everything. But it's actually been the part industry

that's pushed it forward every time to get the

highest quality with the smallest amount of data

used. So they're even pioneering future tech

that is now being adopted by YouTube. uh, in

future videos. So it's funny how that that industry,

you know, is the industry that is probably the

most well equipped to handle this sort of situation.

And there are people I saw, it was actually on,

um, global TV here on the news. They were talking

about it. They interviewed, uh, a few people

that were experts on this. And they said that,

uh, a lot of people around the world, you know,

don't have access to therapists or can't afford

therapy and or, you know, to see a psychologist.

And in some cases, this becomes like going to

these digital sites that becomes their only,

you know, release or something that helps their

mental health just by, you know, accessing the

sex workers for either. paying for sessions or

seeing them is can actually be cheaper than going

to see a psychologist. And I was like, Oh, I

never thought of that, that it could actually

be just something in some cases they're just

people craving for, you know, some sort of connection

with somebody and that it's like, Oh, so It's

it's that's just to me is kind of funny and how

you know moving forward I feel like once all

this clears up that industry is not going to

really change much except for like you said opening

back up You know the in Nevada the brothels and

things but I think it's it's actually going to

change that maybe some people that had You know,

there's there's the social stigma. It's like

oh you go to those sites that might Shift on

people and it might become a little more in the

you know, normal. Okay you know, realm for them.

That makes sense. So what are some things before

we close it out that you see being benefited

by having this whole thing go on? Well, one of

the things I see is I see speaking specifically

from experience, I see a lot of digital video

games being a big boon because the industry has

been moving towards kind of digital anyway. So

I don't see this as too big a deal because Like

hell, there's even an Xbox one. There's an Xbox

one model that doesn't have a disk drive. It's

purely digital. So that was a move anyway. I

don't know how successful it was, but a lot of

publishers are offering digital downloads of

their games at significant discounts right now.

And I'm hoping some bigger releases will just

go, well, we'll ship the digital now. And people

who want physical can get it later because obviously

later. on this year, we're going to have a big

release of cyberpunk, uh, 2077. And if that release

goes ahead, I will be surprised because money,

I still think it will, because they also own

that, that GOG website. They have their own distribution

platform for PC. Um, but I have a, like my old

roommate messaged me asking me if the place or

sorry, the Xbox all digital edition thing was

worth getting. And I'm like, well, he's like,

cause, uh, he was thinking of getting. Like his

work was offering him Game Pass. Like some sort

of promotion from his work. It's like, while

you're at home, you can have this. It was like

three months worth of Game Pass Ultimate. And

I went, well, yeah, because regularly that would

be about 60, 70 bucks to get that. And he goes,

because he found online from a store that would

actually ship it to him a used Xbox One S all

digital for 180 bucks. And he's like, I'll get

that just to play it. So I think that those of

us that even myself, I was like, I don't want

to get all digital games or just do streaming.

I think we're all going to be, this is actually

going to force the industries to move to a digital

platform for most of these things unless you're

collectors. Yeah, like I really want to see the

digital become more successful and people just

Accept it because honestly for me from an accessibility

standpoint, it's fantastic It means I don't have

to bug my wife to put a disk into a console.

I can access it like that From the RPG side,

I think because digital Publishing has been very

successful. Anyway, you see people doing stuff

on D &D Beyond through the open game license

to drive through our RPG, etc. I see this as

a boon for authors to take a chance. I know when

we spoke with Aaron a little while ago during

our interview, he offered the suggestion of if

you're passionate about something, take a risk,

right? something that you know and love and see

what happens. Maybe this will open the door to

more authors to get published. And there's wonderful

opportunities there. I mean, if you're willing

to take a risk, if you have that opportunity

afforded to you, then absolutely take the time

to do so. And As you mentioned, Alex, I think

the adult industry stands at a very interesting

time to do some great things and hopefully show

other industries potentially how it's done. And

I think the adult performers that are doing,

frankly, what's a public service, because I know

a few adult entertainers who act as therapists.

There was one tweet I read last week. As of this

recording saying, you know what? One of my regulars

just said he's had a really bad day I was willing

to do not non sexy talk with him and I crave

that human contact and that really really really

helped so I'm hoping that Despite all the terrible

things that are happening right now. I'm hoping

we can emerge as Better people as a better society

I've often said on my Facebook If we ever stand

at a point in history to tear the old system

down, now is that time. And, um, I hope something

good can come out of this terrible, terrible

thing. It'd be nice to go and actually be able

to hug people again. I never thought that that

would be something I would miss was like going

to a friend or family to just give them a hug.

And it's like, whoa, I missed hanging out with

you because it's weird not seeing you like once

a week. Like I haven't seen you in almost two

months now. Yeah, that's weird because we planned

this like ahead of time We were like that's just

we were actually gonna meet up and then it was

your your sister and I was like, no Yeah, and

then and then I said really and I talked to my

brother and he told me I forgot that he works

at Google and The second week of February Google

said stay home. This is getting bad internationally.

It's gonna hit us soon and He hasn't been to

work since the second week of February But you

know, obviously he's a programmer he can work

from home But he's literally been my only contact

instead of having to get necessities like groceries

Pretty much since that started because he'll

be like he'll come in and visit like once or

twice a week help me get some groceries and that's

about it But yeah, seriously I as soon as like

I don't mean like hey the virus is over I'm gonna

go hug everybody I can see but just you don't

realize how much you're gonna miss human contact

Even if you weren't participating, you don't

have it until you don't have the ability to do

it. I mean, one of the things I haven't mentioned

in this podcast, but because my wife Blair does

majority of the shopping for our household, we

practice a limited form of social distancing

ourselves. Like we don't hug very often just

because you never know because I have, I have

a compromised immune system and so does she.

And all it takes is one mistake. So we are extremely

careful. I'm looking forward to the time when

I don't have to worry about that. And let's be

honest, it's going to be a while till there's

a workable vaccine or some kind of inoculation

of some kind. Yeah, like my final thoughts are

I'm operating under the belief that I probably

already have it. And that I somebody who I operate

on the belief that I've probably already got

it. I've probably already been through it when

I had, you know, whatever. symptoms. I had like

a regular flu season symptoms back in February.

It's a possibility that I've already had something

and that I just got to make sure I don't contact

anybody to give it to them, right? So I'm going

to keep my fingers crossed that none of us have

any issues with it, but I'm not so concerned

about us. I'm more concerned about like, my parents

are in their 60s. I still have grandparents that

are in their 80s. It's like, I can't really see

or talk to them. Like we had to cancel all of

our family events. Uh, we couldn't do Easter

or anything because it's just like, you know,

I, I love you grandma, but I don't want to kill

you. So, um, I can see as soon as this starts

to lift them and you know, everything gets a

little later, I can see people. still being,

you know, a little distant when it comes to going

out in public, but I can see families doing things

like picnics more often, getting out of the house

more often, whether it be, you know, someplace

really public or even just, you know, visiting

some family for a barbecue might have, you might

have more instances of like cookouts happening

again. I think that's, that's probably a a good

observation, a good thought. Yeah, lots of outdoor

activities I can see. I mean, that's what we

have to do right now. That's what my wife and

I are doing. And on Friday, we actually have

a girl coming to live with us now permanently.

And she's 15, but she can't just stay in the

house all the time. Can't ask a 15 -year -old

to just sit around and read a book all day. you

know, got to figure out different kinds of activities

that you can do outside, maybe not in big groups,

but you know, at least with the family group,

and then hopefully not expose, you're still living

elderly relatives to any kind of danger. See,

I'm already kind of social distancing anyway

from my family because they all live in Michigan

and I live in Colorado. So in that instance,

It's not much different for me for for family

purposes but for getting out and actually getting

to talk to people and Hang out with people that

I know or that I work with or just plain go back

to work for things that I may need or Things

that would be much easier in person than digitally

I I do long for the day that we can Actually

be in public again and not have to worry about

that. Do they have it? Do they have it? As much

I mean obviously cleanliness is still something

that some people lack I went to the store and

The other day and there was people that smelled

like they'd been walking around a convention

for three weeks and Yeah See now this just me

but again, I might be snarky and say oh I didn't

realize that there was a shortage of soap as

well as toilet paper We're dealing with an Irish

spring famine like Well people people used up

all the air took all the the liquid soap, but

there was still plenty of bar soap or don dish

soap. So I mean, worse came to worse. But anyways,

no, I don't know. It was just. Yeah, I don't

know. I think some people are. Trying to pretend

like this isn't happening, and then some people

kind of obviously know that nothing is going

to be the same after this. But either way, I'm

looking forward to the day when. You can actually

go to a store. You can actually go look around

you can you know be around people and talk to

them, so Anything else you guys like to say before

we we sign off here well whoop whoop I will say

Fucking magnets, how do they work? That is how

the isolation has got to me. I'm now an official

Juggalo. Oh my God, I should actually put Juggalo

makeup on and just do that for you guys. Good

Lord, that would be terrifying. You should change

your profile picture to that temporarily. I really

should. I think I might. Hey Blair, I'm going

to be a Juggalo. You have to change your, I guess

your Facebook cover photo to be a giant circus

tent so you can be part of the dark carnival.

God, I don't even know what it's about, but I

love it. Or just giant bottles of Fago. That's

it. Giant bottles of Fago. We'll end this on

a completely unrelated note, but does anybody

else remember when Fago had the giant bottles?

You guys don't measure in liters, so I don't

know exactly what the... Yeah, we do. You do?

We do. Three liters. They were three liters.

Yeah, those were great. Yeah. Cause yeah, we

had your money with the giant mouthpiece on there.

Uh, we used to go get them. It was like a dollar

something for three liters. And, uh, as a kid,

I was like, my parents were like, Oh, let's get

that. I'm like, why? Like it's crappy pop, but

it's cheap. So we would get that. And then years

later, I went to our dollar store here when we

started getting Dollar Tree, because that was

never in Canada until like the last six years

or so. Uh, and they would carry a brand that

we had never had up here called Shasta. And they

had two and a half liter bottles. Same size of

bottle, like top part, but it was just like a

fatter bottle. And they had their own version

of Tahiti treat, which we couldn't get in Canada

for years. So I was like, it was basically sugar

death in a bottle. Because if you were somebody

like Alex, who didn't think, and downed an entire

two and a half liter bottle, that was like. 3000

calories or something like that of just pure

liquid sugar. Um, but yeah, like it's, that's,

that's just what came to my mind when I think

of the, like, the only good thing about Juggalo's

is that they spread the, the gospel of Faygo.

And the only thing is we, we got to get our,

Mike, you and I have to get like contacts in

the States to start sending us the diet stuff,

because in Canada, you can't get diet Faygo,

except for the, the Coke, like the. Regular version

of diet in the states. I looked it up every single

flavor. They have has a sugar -free zero calorie

diet version Jen you've got a mission the next

time I see you because for whatever reason it's

weird Canada is more health conscious in general

when it comes to food But we don't have the variety

of the diet drinks that you guys get in the states

That's because they ultimately don't care Yeah.

So now that I've derailed the conversation. Indeed.

Thank you, Michael. Woop, woop. Woop, woop, woop.

So if you guys have enjoyed this conversation

and you'd like to contribute to it, you know

how to get a hold of us on the social medias

or you can send us an email, feedback at alteredgeek

.com or feedback at thisweekendgeek .net. How

can the good people find you on the social medias

if you're so inclined? If you want to find me

and Alex you can find us at this week in geek

on Twitter We typically respond fairly quickly

our email. We also respond almost instantly because

me and Alex both never sleep so emails are always

responded to fairly quickly and Just look around

if you know where to look we're there. So find

us just don't be creepy It is kind of creepy

how you mentioned it though Just find us. Just

find us. It'll be fun. In fact, don't talk. We'll

find you. You don't find us, we'll find you.

I can just be found on Facebook. Aaron Paulier

on Facebook. So until next time, get altered,

get geeky with the Altered Geeks.