Ep 196: Dear Luke, Love, Me (Aspecs in Film!)
KAYLA: So at the end of last week's episode my juice was that I got something very exciting in the mail and we get to tell you about to tell you about it today-
SARAH: Woohoo!
KAYLA: because it is Paper Shoot camera. I recently got me and my friend a Paper Shoot, because we’ve both been really into disposable cameras but we both like the environment and this camera is the perfect mix of both. It’s made of recyclable materials, its’ digital so you can plug it into your computer to charge and to get your pictures onto your computer and it has the aesthetic of a disposable camera.
SARAH: I really like film photos and film photography but I simply do not have the patience to learn the skills necessary for film photography so I think these are really cool and hey Paper Shoot also pays their employees living wages which is a nice thing to hear.
KAYLA: It’s rare and very good and nice. So if you’d like to get a Paper Shoot you can head to our link at tinyurl.com/sfbopaper that also supports us when you use that link so please do that.
SARAH: I bought a camera with that link, just saying, it's what all the cool kids are doing.
KAYLA: You have to now.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: So that’s tinyurl.com/sfbopaper .
SARAH: (whispering) Do it.
(pause)
SARAH: Hey what’s up hello. Welcome to Sounds Fake But Okay, a podcast where an aro-ace girl (I’m Sarah. That’s me.)
KAYLA: … and a demisexual girl (that’s me, Kayla).
CAROLINE: Caroline, a demisexual as well, from Dear Luke, Love, Me marketing producer and I’m constantly questioning myself anyway so it might change later on.
MALLIE: And I’m Mallie McCown, I’m a demisexual aceflux filmmaker, writer, actor, producer of Dear Luke, Love, Me.
SARAH: All the things! - Where we talk about all things to do with love, relationships, sexuality, and pretty much anything else that we just don’t understand.
KAYLA: On today’s episode: Dear Luke, Love, Me —
KAYLA & SARAH: Sounds fake, but okay.
(Intro song)
SARAH: Welcome back to the pod!
KAYLA: Uh, Dear Luke Love M’e?
SARAH: Ah, yes that’s good.
KAYLA: That was a good one, I think.
SARAH: Good I think. Yeah that was pretty good.
KAYLA: One of my best.
SARAH: Okay good.
KAYLA: Moving on!
SARAH: M’oving on if you will.
KAYLA: M’oving on.
CAROLINE: (laughs) I’m so nervous.
SARAH: There’s no reason to be this is a highly chaotic podcast.
KAYLA: Just pretend no one is listening, usually-
CAROLINE: I’m just like, Iuh- eh, uhh, anxiety.
KAYLA: Usually I just pretend no one is listening and that I’m just talking to Sarah and then I say things that Sarah is like “you know other people are gonna listen to this right?” and I’m like “hm, maybe I shouldn’t have said those things”.
CAROLINE: Well that’s the beauty of editing-
KAYLA: True.
CAROLINE: You can just take all of that weird stuff out-
KAYLA: That’s very true.
CAROLINE: and just like hide - that’s like those highlight reels just make yourself sound cool.
SARAH: And that’s the beauty of Kayla not being the one who edits so I just have to take all the weird things she says out.
KAYLA: It’s very nice for me.
MALLIE: That’s why I’m terrified of like Facebook Live Instagram Live, I’m terrified of it! Because I edit, I film myself so much for these updates in my life and I edit so much shit out of my bullshit that I say, doing something live now is like very stressful.
SARAH: It’s too much.
KAYLA: It is very scary.
SARAH: We’ve basically already started so Kayla what are we talking about this week?
KAYLA: Yeah! This week we are talking about the film Dear Luke, Love, Me that is currently in Kickstarter mode trying to get funding and we have two of the amazing members of the team, so we are gonna talk about this amazing asexual film and how everyone can help get it made and yeah, it’s very exciting!
SARAH: Yay, (snapping) I’m snapping in front of my mic.
CAROLINE: Fingersnaps!
KAYLA: Yeah so you both kind of did a very short introduction at the beginning, but is there anything else you’d like to say about yourself, the filming or the team or anything?
MALLIE: Oh my gosh everything, I could go on for days about all of those subjects, but I guess to expand I guess I come from a (storytelling voice) small town in Wisconsin~ (end)
KAYLA: (laughs)
MALLIE: No, but you know I went to Chapman University I got a film degree I was an actor, you know, I always wanted to be an actress since I was twelve, and I think as we grow up and learn how to do life, I mean we’re all still learning how to do that and messing up constantly. I think, one of the most important lessons in my life and my path has been finding autonomy as an artists and I found that while I was going to grad school in Scotland at the Royal Conservatoire in Scotland studying classical Shakespeare performance and text— and that was after that whole stint overseas was after many years in LA as a sketch comedian with Parallel Entertainment and Axial Entertainment with a group called the crooked brooks, it was me with three of my boys, and uh needless to say we don’t talk anymore. (laughs)
(5:00)
KAYLA: Uh oh.
MALLIE: I have a bit of PTSD from comedy, hence the Shakespeare.
SARAH: Oh god.
MALLIE: But uh, but that was many years ago and I think my path has led me down a very meaningful path and I’m here and I feel like it was all very serendipitous.
SARAH: I mean your whole career has led up to you being on Sounds Fake But Okay Podcast.
KAYLA: I mean this is— You’ve made it!
MALLIE: 100%
KAYLA: You’ve made it!
MALLIE: It leads up to this moment.
SARAH: There’s nothing else you could ask for.
CAROLINE: Well, yeah, so I probably sound a little bit different because I’m actually from Australia?
MALLIE: We know what accents are Caroline!
(laughing)
MALLIE: We understand that not everybody is American!
CAROLINE: They might not recognize what accent it is! So I’m actually from Australia and I found out about this film pfff maybe two-three months ago through Facebook. I set up a Facebook group for asexuals in film and by miracle, Mallie found that with six members and just introduced the film and that they were looking for more team members and people to push it and lo and behold we just skyrocketed with five thousand people on instagram and just like a buttload of like asexuals pushing the film because there’s like no representation. I’ve been in marketing and social media stuff for ages but I’ve never had an avenue to promote what I loved and what I value and want to represent and promote and it’s kind of given me the most amazing opportunity to build something beautiful and I finally have something that not only represents me but will give so many opportunities for people to find something that represents them. I mean with Mallie, this script, she didn’t realize she was asexual until she wrote the script and sent it to someone who was asexual. And it’s just like, I just know this film is going to create so much representation and closure for people.
MALLIE: Yeah, it’s such a funny story, this whole journey of the script. And it actually took me a while to understand I was as much a writer as an actor. You know, my father is a writer so I think I always strayed away from that, but even with sketch comedy it's always gone hand in hand. So I wrote this— it was a play, it was a two-person abstract play while I was in Scotland and it was based on this relationship that I had in my past, it was this long-term relationship, but I could never put my finger on it. It was very confusing no one could relate, I couldn’t relate, I didn’t know what it was because it was this soulmate-like bond where we were for all intents and purposes our significant others for nearly a damn decade, but there was no need or push or want for us to romantically be together or sexually be together, but those two things aside, it was, we were complete partners, and nobody could relate and I just felt very isolated in that relationship because I didn’t understand it myself because I hadn’t the terminology I didn’t know anything about the ace community. I had heard about demisexuality, and in fact, one of the last conversations I had with this person a couple years ago was me sitting at a bar with him was me saying “I think might be demisexual” cause I just heard of it, that was many years ago, but I put it to bed and went on my merry way because it wasn’t really important to me. Then I wrote this script based on this real experience and it was very raw and real. I’ve never written anything as truthful to a real experience in my life before. You know, I write horror films and comedy, I’ve never written something this vulnerable before, I think is why I think it resonates with so many people. But I gave it to my DP whose ace and she came back to me and she’s like “Mallie this is the most insanely accurate portrayal of a queerplatonic bond that I’ve ever seen anywhere in my life” and that was kind of a ~OhwowowoWha??~
(10:00)
KAYLA: (laughs)
MALLIE: Because I had never really heard of a queerplatonic bond before I didn’t know what that was so I kind of just looked into it so obviously it has merit. And the more I looked into it it was almost like a detective uncovering a mystery and like getting more clues and solving this murder case, but it was like; my identity~. I even- I hosted zoom meetings with other aces around the world to do this short little Q&A and everybody had the same experience as me and it was just - it became more clear and more clear as I went down this path, that oH maybe I am ace ~ ! and it was all, it's all been a journey of self-discovery this entire project and movie. I mean this movie really has been significant in my view of myself of who I am in the world.
KAYLA: That’s such a cool — like I feel like we ask people all the time when they come on the show “When did you realize you were ace, how did you figure out you wer ace?” And that’s such a —
SARAH: It’s fun!
KAYLA: Such a cool way of realizing it and so cinematic in and of itself, that like you had this realization and it was like another ace person that was like “Hey bud welcome into the community cause like you’re definitely ace!”
SARAH: Also, high key, not only was your DP ace, but your DP is a woman? In this economy?
MALLIE: (laughing) Yes! Her name is Rinny Wilson she is a local Virginian filmmaker, she is amazing, she is supportive. We actually connected when we were on the set of Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, she was the camera loader. And I remember we went out for milkshakes, you know (laughs) we shared this common frustration of “my god when is it gonna be our turn!” You know she’s a camera loader, she wants to be DP. I’m a frikkin’ day player who wants to be an actress. You know it was all this common connection that we know we want more in our lives and our careers, and we’ve been in this business for so long, we understand that no one is going to be saying Yes to us anytime soon, because Hollywood has a very specific agenda, and it’s a very elitist club and I fully believe going back to that “having autonomy as an artist” making your own way, if you’re good at something, and passionate about something, as cliche and cheesy as it sounds, I do believe that dreams really can come true. I was raised on Disney, wishin’ upon a star, al that bullshit fairy godmother coming down, that’s what I saw for my life and it just wasn’t happening and wasn’t happening and wasn’t happening. And um-
CAROLINE: You have to mention, this film has so many other representations, we’ve got cast and crew, nonbinary, trans, ace. It’s just like we have so much of the queer community, like our director, Guillermo Diaz is a gay man and he’s very out and proud, and it’s just like, its such a beautiful rainbow and like, this is like, I realize this is my life’s purpose. I wanna make films that matter, and I wanna make films that aren’t just black and white and just dreary and represents the majority, like I wanna— Yeah. It makes me so happy that this film is my first, really.
SARAH: Yeah. And that is really exciting too because I don’t know if any of you know this — I live in LA and I’m trying to go into TV writing. I’m currently just a meager little assistant but like I know the world. And for those of our listeners who don’t know this, there has been a lot of increased representation in terms of on-camera talent, but that has not always transferred to the behind-the-scenes. Which is why I was like “oh my god a female DP??” which is the director of photography, it's the cinematographer. That’s rare! And so it’s really exciting to hear the people you have behind the scenes are also just like you know — I was gonna say normal people as if straight white men aren’t normal people but maybe they’re not -!
KAYLA: Well, they’re not.
CAROLINE: Like I have been in conversations with men in the film industry talking about female DP’s and they’re like “Aw you know, do you think they can really carry the cameras? They’re too heavy for them” I’m like “ wHATT??” like excuse me?
(15:00)
SARAH: As someone who in college was basically always the sound person, because I was just like “I wanna write, like I’ll do whatever you want me to on set like I just wanna write” so I was always like—
CAROLINE: - Holding the boom mic.
SARAH: — the sound. The amount of muscle I gained from holding the boom? Please.
MALLIE: Yeah. That stuff is no joke man. That is no joke.
CAROLINE: But like honestly though. Before this I was writing my own series to kind of try to do stuff because I always kind of gravitate around film. I’ve been in so many instances with, um, straight white men in the film industry and even like hearing them say you know “Aw if you want funding for your film, like, cast an indigenous person” and I’m like is the only reason you’re casting these people-
KAYLA: What the fuck.
CAROLINE: - is to profit off of them? Like is that the only reason you wanna represent?
MALLIE: I’ve definitely seen the side of — well because it’s all making money. Representation aside, from 80 years ago to today it’s all about making money. And you know, if it was in the 60s we need a hot chick to make money. Now we need BIPOC, we need POC to make money, you know, we need Indigenous to make money. It’s just one of those tokens in the machine that gets like, okay what's the new money maker, what's the new mon- I think its the, two sides of the same coin, at one point— I mean, on one hand, it’s great because we are getting more representation for more diversity, more inclusion. It’s just unfortunate that sometimes the motive, it is money-driven versus something it should be driven by which is genuine care for representation.
CAROLINE: Yeah, like authentic, authenticity for people wanting to represent a minority or someone who is asexual, who doesn’t have as much representation in TV and film-
SARAH: Yeah.
CAROLINE: -it’s a constant of like are they or aren’t they of is this really genuine or are you just trying to make a buck off me?
SARAH: Yeah, I’m an assistant in representation, so like I see a lot of the submissions for like we do lit representations so writers and directors primarily. There are so many times I’ve seen people just being like “Oh this asterisk denotes that they’re BIPOC.” or like “This person is diverse” and I’m like what does that mean, how can a single person be diverse? And it’s very clearly, very clearly, just this is the quota we need to reach. Sorry, we are getting a little bit off topic now, but, I have thoughts, I’m fired up.
CAROLINE: No, but in all fairness it all kind of coincides and connects because we’re talking about representation and if we’re looking at asexual representation we also have to look at indigenous representation, trans representation, because there are so many factors that are lacking in the film industry and like thats why we’re making this film, we want to genuinely show people that you’re not alone you’re not broken. Sex isn’t everything you can live your life without it. And yeah.
MALLIE: And that’s one thing I really love about this project is money has never been the driving factor ever, we’re, we don’t have any, for one! (Laughs) You know, two it all came from a place of we just wanna make this movie because we need it in the world. Even with people like Laith Ashley, who is our Charlie, we cast him as our supporting romantic lead, he’s trans and he got the role because you know Guillermo, I think Guillermo and Laith kind of knew each other from something, um they were in the same circles I guess. And we reached out - He reached out to him because Guillermo definitely genuinely believes in representation, you know, he’s a Cuban American himself, a gay Cuban American himself. And definitely understands how important it is to give voices to the underrepresented and so you know in our other casting we really want to make sure that we are giving opportunities to you know, diversity and inclusion and you know, I’m not actually— I’m very happy to have Laith because so often transgender actors have to play roles that are transgender roles, you know?
(20:00)
SARAH: It’s about being trans.
MALLIE: Yeah! It’s about being trans! They never— You know a trans man never just plays a man it’s gotta be a trans man or like a trans woman never plays a trans woman never a woman, so I’m really excited to Laith in this role because that role is just, I don’t wanna give anything away in the movie, but it's just another love interest and there’s no mention of trans at all because does there need to be? Sometimes there does but—
KAYLA: That’s something I really liked about the mission statement and the explanation of Dear Luke, Love, Me, like its not a film about asexuality, its a film where the two love interests happen to be asexual, which I think is so important because in the very few representations of asexual people we have in the media that’s their story. Is, like, here’s a story about an asexual person realizing they’re ace or struggling because they’re ace. I think it's so important with this trans character and these ace characters the whole story isn’t necessarily ~do do do, here’s what being ace is!~ like its a real story that just happens to like relate to our real life experiences.
CAROLINE: Exactly, yeah, I read the script after kind of helping Mallie a little bit, a couple months ago, and I was just like “wow”. Often I see these kind of short films, or whatever, tv shows and stuff and the representation is very like, just there, it doesn’t explain it or show, kind of the journey of discovery, because a lot of people don’t even realize they’re asexual, they think that they just don’t like sex, or they don’t have a term for it. So seeing a film that shows A to B and not just B, kind of gives them a chance to see things they relate to and I think it's like super cool.
SARAH: And it’s A to B without it being the entire character, like it's not just like, you know, “Hi, this is asexuality 101” you’re showing that journey while still having it be you know, that’s just who this person is and that's just part of their story.
MALLIE: Well, I think the important part of this film is that it never started with an agenda, it started as just a love story. It really really did. There wasn’t any mention of asexuality in it, it was just an honest portrayal of this relationship and that's why I think it's so relatable and not just ace community, but Guillermo read it and he— the first version of it— and there was nothing about aceness or asexuality it was just a beautiful love story between these two soulmates, and THEN I gave it to my DP Rinny, who then I was like I think it's really important to label it. So I didn’t change a lot of the script, there was one scene that was added, where Luke actually mentions the term asexuality, where he’s just casually, they’re hanging out and they’re like, and he’s like “I think I’m asexual” and she’s like “Yeah that makes sense” MOVING ON! You know? And so its, yeah, I think its really important in the sense that its not niche, its just a very very relatable film about two people who like Sarah said, just happen to be asexual. And there’s no mention of Penny being demisexual even though she clearly is. And people who don’t know the ins and outs of the asexual spectrum, might not pick up on this stuff. There might be a straight guy in the audience, who watches it and says “Oh my god I’ve been in this kind of relationship before” or “I’ve felt about this girl before” or “this is so me” or “This is so her” and they have no clue that its an ace film! But the ace people are gonna see it, the demi people are gonna see it, the aromantic people are gonna see it and be like “Ahahaha, I see what you did there” you know?
SARAH: And it also normalizes it to a certain extent. You know, you can have the straight men in the audience be like “Oh okay” and then maybe they’ll start thinking “Oh so maybe I do relate to these people more than I thought, maybe they’re not just alien robots”
MALLIE: Yeah!
CAROLINE: And like it goes into the debate like, can a girl and a guy just be friends? Yes they can. (laughs)
(25:00)
MALLIE: Kind of like what we— I was talking earlier today with one of my friends, its kind of like, we keep saying it's the Harry Met Sally of this generation, it’s kind of the anti- Harry Met Sally, it’s Harry Met Sally in reverse. It’s not like they are best friends for a decade and then ultimately get married, it's they dated and they became friends and then the rest of their lives they’re friends because it's kind of yeah, the anti Harry Met Sally. I think it's you know when that movie was made back in what? 1990? 95? 90? 89? Something like that?I think it was in the 80s. There was no such quote un quote thing as you know asexuality, you know?, no one knew the nuances of this sexual spectrum. We’re very much more evolved as a culture and society here in the western world, where we’re still continually exploring who we are and what our sexual identity is and that is simply not taken into account in the 1989 film Harry Met Sally. And I think this film really takes that thematic statement and fits it in a much more modern context.
CAROLINE: Yeah and there's definitely an anti Harry Met Sally because there's no like Meg Ryan restaurant orgasm scene.
KAYLA: (laughing) I love you saying that it's relatable even to non-aspec people because I feel like that's one of the reasons people are kind of like scared of aspec stories because they think it's like “oh it's so niche, no one outside of the community is going to be interested in this” we think that about this podcast all the time. We’re like “yeah we’re probably never going to be the number one podcast because who's going to listen to this outside of aspec people?” but like that just proves that like there is so much to relate to aspec or not, and hopefully this film when non aspec people see it they realize “obviously these are people just like me and there is a lot to be learned from like the language that aspec people use and the attention to friendship that aspec people have” I just hope people really see that and take that to heart.
CAROLINE: Yeah, which we’ve definitely gotten that in over the last week or so with donations coming in because there’s people not on the spectrum coming in and going “wow like I relate to this so much” and they’re putting through donations and donations, we had like a ten thousand dollar donation in the first-
KAYLA & SARAH: Oh my god, oh my god!
CAROLINE: Yeah like ‘cause one of the perks is that you get to be a VIP co-producer and you can kind of shadow a producer on set, and like experience what it's like to be in a production and stuff and all kinds of different perks and stuff. Yeah we got a ten thousand dollar donation and like, my god, like what? It’s crazy!
KAYLA: That’s crazy.
MALLIE: Yeah people are really coming out of the woodwork to support this film and it's really overwhelming.
SARAH: And can you like just give a bit of an elevator pitch for just like what this story is, cause like since its just not an asexual 101 story, like tell the people what, I guess, it is, so they they can be like “Hell yeah I want to see this movie”.
MALLIE: Yeah! So this film is centered around the characters Penny and Luke who meet each other as essentially teenagers in college, they become instant best friends, they do romantically get together, they break up for certain reasons but after their break up they remain inseparable soulmates as they always have been, and as they grow older in their twenties and their thirties they’re reaching a point in time where Luke, who has a lot of fear about fitting in and he’s feeling a lot of societal pressures to find something normal and they don’t really — you know they’re just best friends, you know and so they start trying to date, they date other people until Luke finds somebody to date that slowly shifts the friendship because in today’s world it is very difficult to have a best friendship with a female when the man is dating another woman, and it’s just a damn shame, it really is. That that kind of relationship isn’t really allowed. Ultimately they face huge challenges to keep their relationship together as the soulmates that they are because society, societal norms are pressing down on them to find something more quote-unquote normal.
KAYLA: Yeah, even as you say that, I’ve had several allo friends in my life recently have a lot of trouble labeling their friendships and understanding the nuances of a friendship that doesn’t necessarily fit into a societal script. And it's been like a very painful thing and a painful thing to watch. And even just this, like your elevator pitch it just reminds me so much of that and you know, like we’re saying these are allo people, they’re not even aspec, and they’re struggling with these same things.
(30:00)
MALLIE: Yeah.
SARAH: It’s almost as if everyone can benefit from the aspec lens in life. Weird.
KAYLA: (laughing)
KAYLA: It’s almost like if everyone just listened to us everything would be better.
CAROLINE: Yeah, just do what I say, do whatever I say and the world will be fine.
SARAH: We’re going to take over.
MALLIE: Yeah.
CAROLINE: Well apparently there’s a plot to take over Denmark in the asexual community.
MALLIE: Yeah!
CAROLINE: Did you hear about that? I love us.
SARAH: Yeah, the aspecs are going to take Denmark.
KAYLA: I’ve not heard this.
SARAH: There are more of us than there are people in Denmark.
KAYLA: I see.
CAROLINE: Funnily enough in my state in Australia WA, there’s a place called Denmark. So I kind of wanna like drive down-00
KAYLA: Take it-
CAROLINE: -there take a photo with a flag, like “just took over Denmark!”
KAYLA: That would be so fun.
MALLIE: You should do it! You should absolutely do it, that would be so good!
KAYLA: Yeah I recently learned that there are the same amount of redheads in the world as aspecs. And I was like then why do we get to see re— I live with h— My boyfriend’s a redhead so I see a redhead every day. But I’m like so why do redheads get to have visibility? And I’m just sitting over here like no one wants to see me.
SARAH: Huh yeah. My mom’s a redhead! My mom’s a redhead? How come she gets this and I don’t!
KAYLA: Tragic, anyway—
MALLIE: I was gonna say earlier about the nuance of the aspectrum; I’ve never seen another community break down attraction like the ace community does, it’s awesome and insane and wild and I love it.
KAYLA: Yeah, it’s so helpful.
CAROLINE: I just love how educational the community has been, and there’s so many accounts on Instagram, and stuff that just like — they’re dedicating their time to tell people what asexuality is and that’s like a full-time job.
SARAH: Yeah (laughs)
CAROLINE: I know — um do you know ace in disgrace, I think? That's her @ -
MALLIE: Oh yeah ace in disgrace
KAYLA: I think so yeah.
CAROLINE: I have seen her work and the amount of time she puts into — or they? I’m not too sure on h- their pronouns — so much time into working on like graphics and educational information and infopacks about the ace community. I’m like that’s a full time job! You’re doing a lot of work, and like fingersnaps, jeez.
MALLIE: Well on the same vein we can say the same thing about Caroline with this film. She has been really our angel, she’s been our fairy godmother who has come down and made this all possible. We went from I think 200 followers to 5000 followers the day she got on board!
KAYLA: Oh my god. I think that's really the power of the ace community too, like how fast you’ve gotten donations. The ace community is so hungry for representation, especially made by other aspces and other queer folks like, when you guys first reached out and I was first seeing this I was like “I have no doubt this is gonna get fully funded” like I was like, “I know how strong the ace community gets I know how excited they get about things like this, they’re gonna be just fine. People are gonna eat this up and be so excited about this story”.
MALLIE: Well we’re very very— I mean we wouldn’t- I don’t know if its surprise that its been so successful, it's definitely been stressful and you never know the future, something can be a sure thing and then fall flat on its face, so we’ve been really wonderfully overwhelmed by the support we’ve been seeing. We hope it continues, we hope we go OVER our goal, because we definitely have these stre-
KAYLA: Movies are expensive!
MALLIE: Oh my gosh, we can’t- I mean we set the goal at 125 because we wanted to be safe, we’d rather have 100 thousand dollars than nothing, but with the fees and everything we know we’re going to end up with 106,000 that is still not enough to make the film. You know?
KAYLA: No.
MALLIE: So in an ideal world where all our dreams come true, the entire community would rally, we’d get well over and above our goal, so we can really just take that chunk and just make the movie, produce it, do post production and get it to festivals and out there. My god, if we got closer to 200,000 that we could do. That we could do.
SARAH: For context for our listeners, when you think about what you consider a low budget indie film, that’s usually in the 1-5 million range.
(35:00)
MALLIE: Yeah.
SARAH: Just for you know, so you can kind of situate yourself here.
KAYLA: As much as we are talking about how well their kickstarter is doing and it is, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to go donate because we’re saying it's doing well. Because they need a million dollars.
MALLIE: Yeah. Any professional who’s like “Oh you’re going to make your own film for 170k HAHAHA'' It doesn’t happen, it really- there’s a wonderful movie called crazy- something crazy, crazy- I don’t know I forgot the title, it was a very small indie film. It was about two people, just young love, and their budget was 150 grand and they did it with a crew of like 8 people and it's like unheard of you know? Making a movie, my god, I mean the amount— we are SO ready to make this film, Guillermo is foregoing a salary, I’m foregoing a salary, we are all working for free on this. And we can’t not pay our crew, we’re not being paid because this is our passion project that we know we gotta get made, so normally a director would- thassa a lot of money to film a feature film, so you know that’s so much money that we’re saving. So, we are producing this for a low amount, but man gosh we need as much as we can get to make it the best possible product.
KAYLA: I’m like so excited for this to go to festivals. I’m just gonna like show up to the premiere, me and Sarah are gonna show up with huge signs, like “Yes! It happened!”
CAROLINE: Yes, you are a hundred percent invited.
KAYLA: We’re gonna be the biggest fans.
MALLIE: I feel like everybody who’s in on this stage, helping us grow our film and our audience, 100% free tickets to the premiere and you get to come party with us!! (laughing)
SARAH: Hell yeah!! Hell yeah.
CAROLINE: Now that we’re talking about stuff that frustrate us about the campaign and stuff, ah it's like crazy, there’s just so many things that have gone wrong. Technical difficulties, and like things not posting as scheduled, and I’m like-
MALLIE: It’s a nightmare! The first day of the campaign might have taken 2 years off my life! It was serious-
KAYLA: (Laughing)
MALLIE: Like we launched, and BY THE WAY, we had so many technical difficulties, we were supposed to launch at 9 but we ended up launching at noon or something, because things aren't uploading and murphy's law and then way long into the day we had like 7000 dollars and then we started getting texts from our coach being like “Who’s not pulling their weight? What balls are being dropped? You guys are not at the numbers you need to be! You need to be well over 10, we have this opportunity from kickstarter, but it's not gonna happen unless you get ten thousand, what’s happening? You have to consider pulling the plug.” Imagine after 2 years of prep and nearly a year prepping this campaign day 1 we call it. That’s how stressful it was.
KAYLA: My god!
MALLIE: I nearly fucking died man.
SARAH: I would walk off a cliff. I would say goodbye cruel world.
KAYLA: I would simply pass away.
MALLIE: I know!! I would fucking jump off a damn bridge! So thank god, that angel came down, and gave us and donated that ten thousand dollars, and from there it was boom boom boom and we ended up with 26 thousand on our first day-
KAYLA: That’s so crazy.
MALLIE: -which was well over our goal of 20 thousand so it allll was gravy after the first day, we were out of the woods. But it was definitely scary. It was definitely like, it was very scary.
KAYLA: Especially like as you were saying this was your passion project. You’re doing this as if it's your full time job, no pay, like I can’t even— Me and Sarah do this for like no pay, but I at least have my full time job to fall back on, but like so this is like one bazillion times higher the stakes, that's just so scary.
MALLIE: Oh, this is my entire life. This is quite literally — 12 hours a day, I am eating rice and corn, (laughing) saving everything, worrying about getting a fulltime job, not having one. It just— oh my god.
CAROLINE: I was worried about Mallie because it was her birthday a little while ago and I was like she’s spending it alone, nothing — and I’m like “No” so I ordered an Uber Eats voucher -
KAYLA: Aww
CAROLINE: -for her so she could pick a birthday cake out. I’m like “no you are not celebrating this alone, uh uh.”
MALLIE: Yeah I didn’t see a single person on my birthday because I was in this kitchen on this computer doing the campaign literally from dusk til dawn, so, or opposite.
(40:00)
KAYLA: Oh my god. Now everybody needs to donate to make it worth it!
MALLIE: (laughing) yeah.
KAYLA: Mallie missed her birthday!
CAROLINE: Please, please.
KAYLA: Buy her a birthday present by donating!
SARAH: Yeah yeah.
CAROLINE: My wallet is like that um gif of like Pulp Fiction? Where he’s just looking around where everything is, like I am broke.
MALLIE: (laughin) yeah.
KAYLA: We have a, like a— its a joke, Sarah insists that it is a cardinal truth— but we have a joke-
SARAH: Oh no it’s true.
KAYLA: about how aspecs can’t owe money but-
SARAH: We can’t.
KAYLA: But that rule doesn’t apply here because you do owe them money, and you have to give it to them or I’ll come find you.
(laughing)
CAROLINE: You can only owe money to us.
SARAH: You can only owe money to Dear Luke, Love, Me (laughs).
CAROLINE: Only to other aspecs.
KAYLA: True, so we’re just circulating money in the aspec community-
SARAH: in our community.
KAYLA: and it's never going outside.
CAROLINE: We’re our own economy.
KAYLA: Yes! And then we’ll move to Denmark (laughs) and then we’ll have our own economy in our country of Denmark!
SARAH: That is unfortunate though because this means that I in theory it means I could owe Kayla money-
KAYLA: And you do.
SARAH: No I don’t!
KAYLA: I mean… but you could.
SARAH: Most recently you owed me money and you paid it to me on venmo. So!
KAYLA: When did I owe you money? Oh. Yeah. I remember now.
SARAH: Oh you remember now okay good.
KAYLA: Yeah I remember now hh~. ANyway.
MALLIE: Well I think we have enough ace people in the world that if everybody just knows about this campaign, I mean think of it like even if just our followers on Instagram alone — the 5000 — give like 25 bucks, if everybody does that we’re at our goal! Boom. Like-
SARAH: Hell yeah.
KAYLA: If we’re like what? 10% of the population, that's a lot of people!
MALLIE: Yeah.
CAROLINE: That’s like 70 million right?
MALLIE: I think what I heard was that we’re 1% of the population but that -
KAYLA: Oh wait no you’re right it is one.
(laughing)
MALLIE: 1% is 70 million people
CAROLINE: I mean you know future goals 10%!
SARAH: (wheezing)
KAYLA: I mean yeah if we just, we have to keep - if they see this movie and they have the same realization Mallie did of “Oh shit I’m ace” this movie is -will be everyone's ace awakening.
SARAH: Caroline I can’t believe you’re now doing marketing for the entire aspec community.
(laughing)
KAYLA: Caroline you’ve been promoted.
CAROLINE: I mean, I’m taking on this job so may as well take that on. I’d be like the [???] of the asexual community
KAYLA: I love it in Denmark.
MALLIE: We need a screening in Denmark and then invite all the ace people of the world so the screening could be there but then its a trojan horse of the take over.
KAYLA: Oh my god.
MALLIE: It’s like the guys we go in like “Yeah we’re doing this screening in Denmark~” and then…
KAYLA: This is me and Sarah own-
CAROLINE: I mean I’m down Mallie! I’ve got my passport ready anyway so-
MALLIE: You do!
KAYLA: Sarah and I own a square foot of land in Ireland because it was a Patreon perk of like if we get so many donations for our Patreon we’ll buy a square foot of land, but now we need to sell that and buy a square foot in Denmark and then keep slowly buying more and more square feet.
CAROLINE: No, but when you buy a plot of land, when you buy a plot of land in Scotland or Ireland don’t you become a lady? So you can be a M’Lady?
KAYLA: (gasping)
SARAH: Wow is that something that we haven’t considered?
KAYLA: Ohh my god~ I did not know that. This is-
CAROLINE: Like that's on your official title for like documentation.
KAYLA: Should I like change my bio on our website to Lady Kayla? I’m changing everything.
CAROLINE: Like take a photo of the certificate and you’re like “I’m officially a M’Lady”
MALLIE: It is true that you’re a lord — or you buy a square foot of land in Scotland or Ireland and you’re a lord or a lady.
KAYLA: I’m a M’Lady! Oh my god this is the best information I’ve received in probably a year.
SARAH: Because we bought our squarefoot in Ireland so we could make it the aspec capital of the world so I think we should also have a screening on our squarefoot in Ireland.
KAYLA: One square foot. The tiniest little screen.
CAROLINE: Just like stick a little like uhh a tripod with the little thing so you can have your film screening on there.
SARAH: Precisely.
KAYLA: Yes.
MALLIE: Yeah everybody meet us in Ireland October 4th 2022.
KAYLA: Alright write it down, it's happening everyone.
SARAH: Perfect.
KAYLA: And now you have to support this movie because we have to have the screening on a square foot of land.
SARAH: That’s true.
MALLIE: I love that I love that, I think that’s a plan, we should do that.
SARAH: I mean as we discussed in our episode about the ideal aspec birthday, I mean the goal is to put all of the aspecs on that square foot of land and just stack each other up. It’ll be — Everything is perfect.
(45:00)
KAYLA: Everything will be fine, it’ll work, for sure.
CAROLINE: Do you remember Habbo Hotel, from like years ago where they stack things?
MALLIE: What?
CAROLINE: No?
SARAH: Is this an Australian thing?
CAROLINE: Maybe that was just Australia (laughs)
(laughing)
CAROLINE: Don’t worry, ignore, cut that out.
SARAH: No I’m gonna leave it in and all the Australians of the world are gonna validate you.
KAYLA: They’ll know.
MALLIE: (imitating an Australian accent) NO! NOOO!
CAROLINE: Oh shut up.
KAYLA: That just reminds me of the TikTok audio that’s like (Australian accent) “Oh No Clio!”
CAROLINE: Nooo. That’s how we actually sound.
(Laughing)
CAROLINE: Like it's not a joke that's how Australians sound.
KAYLA: That’s so funny.
MALLIE: I mean you didn’t get the cream of the crop out of the accents of the world, I will say.
KAYLA: I mean it's better than ours in my opinion. I don’t know.
SARAH: Yeah me and Kayla sound like (nasal) we’re talking like this all the time. So?
KAYLA: Yeah.
MALLIE: The first time I met an Australian he was, we were — We met at a hostel in Hollywood and then he was like “Come to Vegas with me ~” and I’m like “Okay?” and he’s like “I’ll rent a Mustang ~” and I’m like “(laughs) Okay.”
KAYLA: (laughs) What?
MALLIE: And then I like quit my job.
SARAH: Your life is wild.
KAYLA: What the fuck!
MALLIE: Yeah and going to Vegas with this Australian I just met in this Mustang and he mentions how the American accent is so cool to him because to him we all sound like movie stars-
KAYLA: Ohhh.
MALLIE: Because that’s what movies are. American movies are like The Movies.
SARAH: The movies.
KAYLA: That is— what a wild life you have.
SARAH: Caroline the cool thing about you being an Aussie though is that you have an accent that no one can replicate. Like no one who is not from Australia can do your accent so you can lord that over people.
CAROLINE: I mean I don’t think I don’t think anyone wants to replicate my accent.
(Laughing)
CAROLINE: They’re like “Aw yeah you can do you and you can do you”
MALLIE: Aw.
SARAH: Oh incredible. Anyway we’ve gone so far off the rails, but what a delight this has been! Are there any last things you want to say about the movie before we- before we go into our poll and things?
MALLIE: I don’t know, I think everythings kind of been— you know we’re just really excited and we need support and it's- you know yeah we said everything right? We’ve said everything?
KAYLA: Yeah. Well let’s do a plug of the links, in case anyone is lame and stops listening now and then we’ll plug them again and then they'll be in the link in the description and then they’ll be on our social media and we’re gonna put it in front of everyone so much that they’re sick of it.
MALLIE: Right.
SARAH: You will have to get it tattooed on your forehead.
KAYLA: Mhm.
CAROLINE: We’ve made it super simple. It's just dearlukeloveme.com and it directs to the kickstarter.
SARAH: Hell yeah.
MALLIE: Yep, title of the movie dearlukeloveme.com!
KAYLA: Yup there’s a lot of— I’m on it right now — there's a lot of really like nice pictures and a description of the movie and everythings really. It's probably the most beautiful kickstarter I’ve ever seen, I do think.
MALLIE: Oh yeah I mean it took me a long time to design that bitch.
KAYLA: It looks great! It looks good.
SARAH: Brb giving you all my money.
(Laughing)
CAROLINE: There was many hair pull out moments where we were like “This needs to be changed! No we’re gonna change this and do this” and I'm like wuwuwu!
MALLIE: Yeah I could not have done any of this without Caroline she’s kind of been my right hand man from you know the second she got on board and my god I couldn't even imagine doing this myself. I know I have my other EPs and they’re amazing but they’re like, you know, they’re also — two of them are also actors. So you know how actors are, you know?
(laughing)
MALLIE: You know so it's really really really amazing to have you, Caroline, just be here and have my back all the time with the social media, with the posting, with the graphic design, with the marketing, with the reaching out to you know companies, with the everything, everything you’ve just been the—
CAROLINE: Yeah! We’ve actually had so much success reaching out to various companies and stuff. I know in the script I realized there was like all these things with like beer and stuff so I was like why don’t you reach out to a local brewery and see if they’d like to have product placement and—
MALLIE: That was your idea, that's right! That’s your frickin’ idea man! Aw!
CAROLINE: Yeah we had like Sequoia brewery—
MALLIE: Yeah! I didn’t even thought about that man! Aw, You are fuckin lit! Okay so—
(Laughing)
MALLIE: Okay so Sequoia brewing company — I’m just going to talk about them for just a little bit — so so yeah it was all Caroline, she said we should reach out to these companies. we found- she found this Sequoia brewing company because our film there is a big metaphor about sequoias and the trees and we shoot half the movie in the Sequoia national forest
(50:00)
MALLIE: and it's a big big metaphor thematic statement about the sequoias so we reached out to the Sequoia Brewing Company in Fresno and Visalia, they are a local brewery they’re only about 20 years old, buy local we just met the owner Jeremey and the project director Morgan the other day. And they’re just like us, they just like coming up from the bottom from nothing, trying to make this global company and they are so in- so deserving of all the business, they are good people, they have amazing beers by the way. We just had a tasting and we’re gonna like post that, it’s gonna be really fun. so that was also all Caroline that whole idea and now we have this beautiful, wonderful partnership with Sequoia Brewing Company and we’ll be— we’ll have their back forever. You know? You know? OUr company Middle M Productions? Dear Luke, aside next movie come work with us! You know?
KAYLA: (laughs) The official beer of the movies.
MALLIE: Yeah!
SARAH: That’s so exciting.
MALLIE: Yeah right!
CAROLINE: The official movie of the asexual community.
SARAH: I’ve been very distracted the past five minutes because I’ve been trying to get into my kickstarter account and I can’t get in!
CAROLINE: Oh no!
KAYLA: Sarah’s trying to give you her money right now.
SARAH: I was like no I can’t focus on the podcast I need to give you my money right this fuckin second.
MALLIE: Right now!
SARAH: That’s the ADHD just going crazy.
MALLIE: The next week we’re going to have like a special perk that’s if anybody’s a Nick Jonas fan or a Jumanji fan we have this special perk- it's so random- we a special perk that we are giving away a — the actual costume of Nick jonas from Jumanji—
KAYLA: Where did you get that?!
MALLIE: So one of our producers is like this— he loves movies so much he just goes online and takes part in these auctions for movie props. He has like- he has like a Titanic life vest and he has something from Death Becomes Her. He has like a whole bunch of stuff.
KAYLA: Oh my god.
MALLIE: And so he’s donating that to the campaign as a perk so if anyone wants, you know, that replica costume, or the costume that was actually used in the movie, hey it’s gonna be available.
KAYLA & SARAH: Wow.
KAYLA: Now you have to donate! You need Nick Jonas’s clothes!
SARAH: Please.
MALLIE: Exactly.
KAYLA: That is so fun, oh my god.
SARAH: Amazing.
KAYLA: Wow.
MALLIE: I hope we tweet at him and he like responds.
KAYLA: That would be soo cool.
SARAH: Yeah. Please just give us a little boost. Nicholas please! Um-
CAROLINE: He would just buy the outfit back.
MALLIE: Yeah!
SARAH: Oh man on that note what’s our poll for this week?
KAYLA: I think it has to be, have you donated to Dear Luke, Love, Me yet, yes or no? And if your answer is no, uh wrong.
SARAH: If you’re answer is no and you’re in a financial position where you are able to give your disposable income to Dear Luke, Love, Me then you suck.
KAYLA: Yes.
SARAH: If you are not in a position to give your money to Dear Luke, Love, Me I don’t know maybe give them a little share on social media.
KAYLA: True, there's free ways to support.
MALLIE: That's true. That's true.
SARAH: Aw man okay, Kayla what is your beef and your juice this week?
KAYLA: Uhh okay we are recording this so soon to when we are recording our last one so my beef again was gonna be American Airlines so—
SARAH: It was.
KAYLA: we’re not going to do that. Fuck American Airlines. Unless they’re supporting Dear Luke, Love, Me then I love them again. Uh my beef is…
SARAH: Want me to go?
KAYLA: I just had one. yeah, I just had one. I don’t remember
SARAH: My, my beef, is that Mr. Bogey, my roommate's cat, likes to chew on cords that are plugged into the wall and in particular he likes to chew on our internet cord and I took a look at it the other day and this boy has chewed all the way through to the wire. And I’m like -
KAYLA: Sir.
SARAH: Sir you’re going to get electrocuted. Spectrum is never going to take this cord back.
KAYLA: Oh my god. Sir.
SARAH: Please sir, sir please. And my juice is guys— I got a car wash. I don’t think you understand how big of a step it is that I got a car wash. I have lived in Los Angeles for over a year and a half now and this is the first time I have gotten a car wash. Which for those who live in LA you gotta have your nice clean little car, but hey I finally have my clean car, it's a big deal. Kayla don’t look at me like that.
KAYLA: I’m still trying to think of my beef. I'm not really looking at you.
SARAH: Okay, okay.
(55:00)
MALLIE: I think having a clean car can change your life truly.
SARAH: It’s truly- my car was just looking so rough compared to the other cars on the road and I was like I'm gonna do it I’m gonna wash that thing.
KAYLA: Wow. You’re so brave.
SARAH: Thank you.
KAYLA: My beef, I still don’t remember what it was supposed to be, but maybe it will just be that I don’t like that humans are self cleaning because I really just don’t like taking showers. But I do have to.
SARAH: You don’t like that humans aren’t self cleaning?
KAYLA: I just wish humans were self cleaning.
MALLIE: Oh like a cat! A cat is self cleaning, right?
KAYLA: Yes. I just-
SARAH: You definitely said that you are glad that humans are self cleaning, is what you- is what came out of your mouth.
KAYLA: Well, that doesn’t matter.
CAROLINE: I wish we weren't required to.
KAYLA: Yes or that.
CAROLINE: Like that we don’t need to. I wish it would just be next day magically like clean.
SARAH: And then it could be like oh taking a bath or a shower could be a luxury spa thing, you don’t really need it but it could help if you want the extra fun.
KAYLA: Yeah rather than it being the worst thing I ever have to do. Um my juice is… No, that was my juice last week! Oh my god.
SARAH: Kayla’s juice is Dear Luke, Love, Me. Mallie and Caroline, what is your beef and juice this week?
MALLIE: Alright. I got some- yeah okay I have beef and juice! I would say- my beef constantly is the DC universe but I think my real beef-
(laughing)
MALLIE: My particular beef this week is like when you’re at a restaurant like when you're at like a restaurant that might be touristy you’ll have a photographer come up to be like (Italian accent) “Can I take your photo?” and they take your photo and they’re usually like I don't know Italian or French like international and then you're like okay cool yeah, they sell it at the end which is fine you don’t have to buy the picture, but they take the picture and then they take another one and another one and they reposition you like “Now you sit here and you sit here!” and like now they’re taking up like five minutes of your meal time. That's what I have beef with.
SARAH: I can't believe that Mario from Super Mario Brothers is taking your photo at restaurants.
MALLIE: No I know I was like “You have better shit to do man, like come on you need to sort your priorities out!” (Italian accent again) “I need to take your picture!”
(Laughing)
MALLIE: And I think my juice, I’m gonna say, um Afghan hounds. I think the Afghan hounds of this world, I mean sometimes- they are rare. They're a rare spot they’re like seeing Halley’s comet, but when you do it's like damn they're good looking dogs, man. They're good looking dogs. Yeah I would say that.
SARAH: That’s hot.
MALLIE: Yeah.
SARAH: They’re a very spicy dog.
MALLIE: Oh also I will say also Babe. I watched Babe this week, and I would recommend anyone to go back and watch that sucker of a film because it's ADORABLE.
SARAH: I’ve never seen Babe.
MALLIE: I saw it when I was like three.
SARAH: I’m like the worst- I have like a film degree but I’ve never seen any movie ever. I’m like truly the worst about that so-
MALLIE: That's okay, that's okay, I mean there’s always, you know, catch up time. And do you really need to see movies?
KAYLA: You need to see Dear Luke, Love, Me?
MALLIE: Dear Luke, Love, Me.
SARAH: That’s true. That’s true.
CAROLINE: The only movie you need to see.
KAYLA: Yes. The only movie. Ever. In existence.
CAROLINE: Uhh. I think my beef is time zones?
MALLIE: Mhm.
SARAH: Ohh yeah. My god.
MALLIE: Facts.
CAROLINE: I wish everybody was on the same time zone because I’m waking up at like 2-3 in the morning so I can like jump on and jump on zooms and make sure everyone's sharing and boosting and stuff. And I’m just like I wanna sleep!
SARAH: Did you say you’re in Western Australia? What city are you in?
CAROLINE: I’m in Perth.
SARAH: Okay, that’s the only city I know in Western Australia. So big brain.
CAROLINE: Ooo!
MALLIE: I think that might be the only city IN Western Australia. Right? (laughs)
CAROLINE: I’m actually lucky that I'm in Perth because like it’s a little bit closer than I would be in Melbourne or Sydney.
SARAH: Yeah I was gonna say like is that better or is that worse?
CAROLINE: It’s good.
SARAH: Okay, exciting.
CAROLINE: Um yeah and I think my juice is… like it sounds corny but meeting Mallie! Like I feel like-
MALLIE: Yeah!
CAROLINE: - from the moment I was introduced to the film, introduced to Mallie. I was like holy shit — I don’t know if you guys swear a lot — Holy poop.
SARAH: No, you can say whatever.
KAYLA: We do lots of swearing. You're good.
SARAH: I’m honestly surprised I dont think anyones said fuck yet so I’m going to say it now.
MALLIE: I’m shocked because I swear like a sailor-
KAYLA: So do we!
MALLIE: and I had to be around a toddler whose parents care about that shit, so this morning I was having to watch my mouth and it was very bizarre.
(1:00:00)
SARAH: We mark all of our episodes as explicit to be safe because maybe-
KAYLA: Just because of the swearing
SARAH: - Maybe we said something I don’t know!
MALLIE: Yeah.
KAYLA: It’s never sexual content, it's literally just me never not swearing.
MALLIE: Yeah no, relatable.
CAROLINE: Yeah I think this whole entire experience of this film and meeting everyone has been totally Kismet and I truly believe in universal powers and karmic retribution and stuff and like I must've done a lot of good shit in my past life because I feel like I’ve just finally stepped into what i’m supposed to do for the entire rest of my life and I’m only 26 years old so hot damn!
SARAH: Exciting!
CAROLINE: Like a lot of people only realize what they’re passionate about, or what they wanna do really late in their life and I feel like super blessed that I’ve found my calling? Not only in film but just asexual activism and doing a lot in Australia to improve sex education curriculum and literally there is no asexual education in our curriculum in Australia and so a lot of kids growing up and high school and stuff they dont know that its completely normal. So.
MALLIE: I never even heard about asexuality until this year, you know? Whbububpaha? We should have known about this! There are people from the fifties and sixties and dare I say seventies who are like “I just found out that I was asexual” because the educatoin is just getting to them.
CAROLINE: Yeah I think — I was acutally thinking about it this morning because I was watching a film about how gay men, and how gay women shared a house, they were married but they had two levels where they would be underneath and then on top and then kind of switch because it was illegal. But I was thinking how many like asexual aromantic people would have been beards for gay men or gay women because they couldn’t find that partner or acceptance-
MALLIE: Yeah!
CAROLINE: -and there's like there's a lot of people who went through that not knowing that that was what it was.
SARAH: Yeah. Indeed. I don’t even know where we were but yes to all of that.
(laughing)
SARAH: If you want to support us you can find us on Patreon, Patreon.com/soundsfakepod-
SARAH: Hey it’s Sarah from the future here with your patrons with special guest Kayla!
KAYLA: It’s me from the future also!
SARAH: Wow! We have a new $2 patron. It is Samantha Yost, (sing song) thank you Samantha!
KAYLA: Thank you!
SARAH: Our $5 patrons we’re promoting this week are: James, Corinne, AliceIsInSpace, Skye Simpson, and Brooke Siegel. We also have a new $5 patron Katheryn Bailey, (sing song) thank you Katheryn we love you!
KAYLA: Welcome!
SARAH: Our $10 patrons who we are promoting this week are: Jay, who would like to promote their podcast out_cast, Arcnes, who would like to promote the Trevor Project, and Benjamin Ybarra, who would like to promote tabletop games and also tabletop games who would like to promote Benjamin Ybarra.
(Laughing)
SARAH: Our other $10 patrons are: Anonymous, my Aunt Jeannie, Cass, Doug Rice, H. Valdís, Barefoot Backpacker, The Steve, Ari K., Mattie, Derek and Carissa, Khadir, Potater, Changeling MX, DAVID JAY, The Stubby Tech, Simona Sajmon, Rosie Costello, and Hector Murillo. Our $15 patrons are: Nathaniel White, NathanielJWhiteDesigns.com, my mom Julie who would like to promote free mom hugs, Sara Jones who is @eternalloli everywhere, Martin Chiesel who would like to promote his podcast, Everyone’s Special and No One Is, Leila who would like to promote “Love is love” also applying to aro people, Shrubbery who would like to promote the planet earth, Sherronda J Brown who would like to promote tabletop games becoming a patron, Maggie Capalbo who would like to promote their dogs Minnie, Leia, and Loki, Andrew Hillum who would like to promote The Invisible Spectrum Podcast and Dragonfly who would like to promote vibing. Our $20 patrons are Sarah T who would like to promote long walks outside and HomHomofSpades who would like to promote getting enough vitamin D, of which I don’t because yesterday I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I was like “Oh my god she’s so pale” Anyway—
(laughing)
KAYLA: I did get a snapchat about that, it's true and confirmed.
SARAH: Yeah, uhhh, back to the future okay bye.
SARAH: If you want to support Dear Luke, Love, Me which I mean that's not an option. Supporting us is an option but Dear Luke, Love, Me is not you don’t have a choice.
KAYLA: Obligatory.
SARAH: Obligatory. Once again: dearlukeloveme.com Give them your money, I will give them my money as soon as I can figure out how to get into my Kickstarter account (laughs). Do either of you have something you want to promote that is not the movie just for funsies? It can be like your favorite color or it can be your personal social media I don’t know.
(1:05:00)
CAROLINE: Well I actually am starting very soon on my Depop, I will be selling a lot of vintage clothing, with 50% of all profit going to asexual activism and representation measures for film and TV, and a lot of that will help me go over to America and produce this film and stuff, so umm yeah! If you wanna follow that that’s Depop.com/click4caroline.
SARAH: Cool!
MALLIE: I don’t have anything to promote but if we’re wrapping up I just wanna say thank you so much for allowing us on your show and talking with us and being so great and awesome and having such a good time. We really really appreciate it so so much, you have no idea how much the support means coming from you guys as individuals, as a podcast it really really is— just thank you so much.
CAROLINE: And you know I also just want to apologize for my ADHD. I've gone off on so many tangents.
SARAH: Okay I also have ADHD and so like that's just the bread and butter of this podcast.
KAYLA: This is an ADHD podcast.
SARAH: This is a safe space for people with ADHD.
KAYLA: We are an ace aro ADHD podcast.
SARAH: A hundred percent yeah!
KAYLA: But yeah thank you guys so much for coming, this was such a good conversation and I know like Sarah as a film person, I’m sure was even more than me, just like taking this, so much of this is so important and just so moving to hear your story and how its translating into this film and that you guys are living out your dreams it's just really cool to see.
MALLIE: Well shit!
SARAH: Aw man we should actually wrap up the actual podcast so uhhhhhh, what’s the end of our podcast?
KAYLA: Thank you so much for listening…. Should we just do it in reverse?
SARAH: Thanks so much for listening. Tune in next Sunday for more of us in your ears.
KAYLA: And until then, take good care of your cows.