There’s a question I have to ask myself as we launch this new evolution of the website / podcast / forum that you’re looking at today. It’s a question that should be asked before you jump off of any cliff: What the hell am I thinking?
I am a married man, with two little girls that I cherish beyond words and a wife that is more understanding and devoted then I deserve. My best friend lives within a half hour drive, and we make excuses to hang out together whenever possible. I have a pretty good job that affords me most of the luxuries I need, but I’ve managed to cling to the wild aspirations of youth by sneaking away to write the next Great American Novel. In other words, I’m happy, content, and very, very busy. All these things represent the backbone of the question that is weighing on me tonight. What the hell am I thinking?
When we decided to create the Talkingship podcast, my best friend Nerves and I were looking for an excuse to drink more beer and laugh a lot. It was clearly a noble pursuit. We cobbled together the necessary parts and began to experiment with something neither of us had ever tinkered with, and before we knew it, we had a full-fledged “radio” show. Despite all the other things in our lives that required our time and attention, we made it a point to get together once a week, drink some beer, and have some laughs. It just so happened that we were also recording a podcast during those times.
As the months went by, and our exploits grew more popular, we discovered a community of listeners that our show was bringing together. These fans (who clearly have a keen sense of great entertainment) needed a place to hang out, and this helped set the stage for the forum that was soon created. Suddenly there was a place for us to gather and tell dick jokes. It was great!! But it was only serving to eat away at more of the sparse free time I had left.
Now there’s this: a new, content driven website that promises to devour what little extra moments I can scrape together in my otherwise jam packed days. Why in the hell would I want to do this? Every moment in our life is precious, and deciding to devote a chunk of it to a website that was never intended to make money just seems crazy! Or does it?
Everyone reading this article has come here for a reason. It’s a reason that is pretty damn exciting. You are the breaking wave of a new media that threatens the very foundation of the current system of entertainment. No, I’m not so obnoxiously arrogant (I consider myself ‘delightfully arrogant’) to think that this website is that breaking wave, but rather a part of it. Ever since the corporate world got it’s grubby fingers wrapped around the neck of the entertainment industry we have been shovel-fed a deluge of slop that we all knew tasted like shit. Television, movies, music, and radio were forced through a cookie cutter system that created clones of things that had once been unique. It is a system that is designed to provide the public with what the corporations are convinced we like the taste of. “Oh, you liked that Batman movie? Here are twenty more just like it!” It is one of the final pieces in the Orwellian puzzle that finally destroys our individuality. When art is manufactured, life is dead. And despite the heartless desires of the corporate money machines, you find yourself here, at a website that is decidedly anti-establishment. You are starved for something new, something different, something that doesn’t fit into the molds they created for you. Just as the entertainment industry was beginning to lose its connection to our souls, we were given the Internet. Suddenly we had the opportunity to explore content that was unlike anything any of our ancestors could have dreamed of (donkey shizer porn not withstanding). Every chain that anchored us to someone else’s decision about what was supposed to entertain us was broken. We were free to roam.
And you roamed here. That is fucking crazy.
Despite the wealth of destinations that you could have surfed this wave to, you came here. You decided that something we were doing was interesting to you. One of our dick jokes made you laugh. It is that decision that inspires me to turn this into something more then it was. When you made the choice to spend your free time with me, I made the choice to do everything I could to make it worth your while.
The evolution of Talkingship has been an arduous one, and not just for me. In fact, there are some folks that have worked a hell of a lot harder then I have on this new site, and I owe it to them to sing their praises for a second. First, there’s DJ. He has been around since damn near the beginning of this voyage, and he has always been the one to stand behind Nerves and I and push us in the direction we need to go. He is a computer wizard and is responsible for a lot of the cool developments that have come about. He is also the one that finally made me decide to take the plunge and turn this site into an article / content based home for us rather then a place for us to just tell dick jokes. Next, there’s our very own Chupacabro, an old friend of both Nerves and mine that helped to create the site itself. There’s no question that Nerves and I are complete noobs when it comes to all of this tech stuff and it was Choops that took our nonsense and molded it into a cohesive destination on the net. Thank you gentlemen.
Then there are the folks that have also decided to turn their free time into a thankless, moneyless past-time! Despite the better sense I am sure their loved ones tried to instill, these guys have pledged their time to us, and in turn, to you. We have The Fisherman, who is going to be managing our Video Game page and ensuring that we are up on all of the biggest developments in that community. We have Farva, who is going to manage the Movies page and try to keep Nerves from posting endless Twilight Fan Fiction. And who could forget the man, the legend, the Australian: Muttonchop! He is going to be stepping up to provide the odd content that he has become famous for on this ship. Then we’ve got Camdog, El Mariachi, Deadpool, and Nipples who have all stepped up to the plate to help us turn this community into something great. I could not hope for this new ship to do anything but sink if it weren’t for all of you. Thanks!
We hope that you enjoy the new Talkingship, and we all want to thank you for choosing to spend your time with us. We’ll do our best to make it worth your time!
